''The Third Reich'' Trilogy is a series of three

narrative history Narrative history is the practice of writing history in a story-based form. It tends to entail history-writing based on reconstructing series of short-term events, and ever since the influential work of Leopold von Ranke on professionalising histo ...

books by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

historian

Richard J. Evans Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...

, covering the rise and collapse of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in detail, with a focus on the internal politics and the decision-making process. The three volumes of the trilogy – ''The Coming of the Third Reich'', ''The Third Reich In Power'', and ''The Third Reich at War'' – were published between 2003 and 2008. The books are illustrated with maps created by András Bereznay. According to

Ian Kershaw Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's leading experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is pa ...

, it is "the most comprehensive history in any language of the disastrous epoch of the Third Reich". It has been hailed as a "masterpiece of historical scholarship."

Books

''The Coming of the Third Reich''

The first volume, ''The Coming of the Third Reich'', was published by Penguin in the UK in October 2003 (, 622 pages), and in the US in February 2004 (, 656 pages). It describes the origins of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

and the circumstances that led to its gaining control of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

, covering the period from the

unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...

in 1871 through the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the interwar period to 1933, when

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

and the Nazis seized power in Germany.

''The Third Reich in Power''

The second volume, ''The Third Reich in Power'', was published by Penguin in the UK and the US in October 2005 (UK: , 960 pages; US: , 960 pages). It describes how Hitler transformed Germany into a totalitarian dictatorship during the 1930s, picking up where the first volume left off, and ending with the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in September 1939.

''The Third Reich at War''

The third volume, ''The Third Reich at War'', was published by Penguin in the UK in October 2008 (, 912 pages), and in the US in March 2009 (, 944 pages). It describes the entire wartime period of Nazi Germany, beginning with the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in 1939 and completing the timeline with the end of the war and the defeat and

surrender Surrender may refer to: * Surrender (law), the early relinquishment of a tenancy * Surrender (military), the relinquishment of territory, combatants, facilities, or armaments to another power Film and television * ''Surrender'' (1927 film), an ...

of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Limited-edition boxed set

To coincide with the release of the final volume of the trilogy, Allen Lane published a

limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

boxed set () containing special editions of the three books, using heavier paper and better binding than the regular trade editions. This set is now out of print.

Similar or related works

The Origins of the Second World War ''The Origins of the Second World War'' is a non-fiction book by the English historian A. J. P. Taylor, examining the causes of World War II. It was first published in 1961 by Hamish Hamilton. Origins Taylor had previously written ''The Struggl ...

by A.J.P. Taylor (1961). *

The Twenty Years' Crisis ''The Twenty Years' Crisis: 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations'' is a book on international relations written by E. H. Carr. The book was written in the 1930s shortly before the outbreak of World War&nb ...

E. H. Carr Edward Hallett Carr (28 June 1892 – 3 November 1982) was a British historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography. Carr was best known for '' A History of Soviet Rus ...

(1939). * The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919-1933 by

Zara Steiner Zara Steiner, (''née'' Shakow; 6 November 1928 – 13 February 2020) was an American-born British historian and academic. Born in New York City, she was the daughter of Frances (née Price) and Joseph Shakow.) Her father was an outfitter who pr ...

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Third Reich Trilogy, The 2003 non-fiction books 2005 non-fiction books 2008 non-fiction books History books about Nazi Germany Series of history books about World War II