Hitler's compromises

Accounts of the Nazi dictatorship usually emphasize Hitler's charisma and his use of terror, and they often describe him as a leader who gave up almost nothing to hold power. Nathan Stoltzfus argues that this view leaves out a great deal. He examines how often Hitler actually backed down, using these concessions to head off hostility and to secure the complete loyalty of ordinary Germans.

As the author explains, Hitler's ambition extended to a thousand-year Reich. To reach it, he wanted Germans to accept Nazi ideas so thoroughly that they would keep them alive without prompting and would shut out anyone who did not fit the new social order. Stoltzfus looks closely at the moments when opposition flared inside Germany. Such protests most often came when policies clashed with long-held customs or reached into private life, and in those cases Hitler weighed his options carefully and acted to protect his public image.

The book covers the period from the 1920s until the regime collapsed. Its author is also the writer of Resistance of Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Germany, a book that has earned awards.