Weimar Germany

Reviews / Votes

Excellent . . . Gripping . . . This book tells of what happens when truth is forcibly expelled from a nation's public life and the good people abandon politics, leaving only rousers of the rabble to rule -- MAX HASTINGS * Sunday Times * Impressive . . . a fascinating portrait of how frighteningly easy it is for a democracy to crumble -- CAROLINE MOOREHEAD * Spectator * A pacy, highly readable narrative * Literary Review * [A] spirited, sometimes droll account. Political chapters alternate with cultural ones which are almost self-contained, like essays, as he seeks to tell the story through the eyes of those who lived it, unaware of what was coming next -- Giles MacDonogh * FINANCIAL TIMES * One historian who really does know the politics and culture of Germany from 1918 to 1933 is Victor Sebestyen. In a crowded field, Weimar Germany: Death of a Democracy towers above its competitors. From the shocking violence to the exhilarating culture of Weimar, Sebestyen is a master of his material * The Critic * Victor Sebestyen has achieved that rare thing to do well: a marriage between impeccable scholarship with pacy readability. Weimar Germany is as gripping as a novel and crammed with dramatic details of human action (and inaction) which brilliantly illustrate his argument that the collapse of Weimar Germany and the rise of Hitler was not inevitable. What canny insight this book offers into the insecurity of our own times -- ANNE SEBBA * author of The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz * Sebestyen has succeeded triumphantly at that hardest of historians' tasks: defeating the tyranny of hindsight. The Weimar Republic is usually seen solely through the prism of the horrors that followed it, but this book rightly treats it as a fascinating historical period in its own right. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, Sebestyen reminds us once again why he is one of the best historians writing today -- ANDREW ROBERTS * author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny * A fast-paced and dramatic account of this tumultuous decade that could not be more timely. Sebestyen has brought a vast cast of characters to life and in doing so reminds us of the fragilities of civil society and democracy -- TIM BOUVERIE * author of Allies at War * This timely reappraisal of Weimar Germany is not only scholarly, engaging and perceptive, but often worryingly resonant. All our politicians should read it -- CLARE MULLEY * author of Agent Zo *