Fateful Hours: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic - Couverture rigide

Ullrich, Volker

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1324110546 ISBN 13 : 9781324110545

Editeur : W. W. Norton & Company, 2025

Synopsis

Democracies are fragile. Freedoms that seem secure can be lost. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic. Germany's first democracy endured for fourteen tumultuous years and culminated with the horrific rise of the Third Reich. As one commentator wrote in July 1933: Hitler had "won the game with little effort. . . . All he had to do was huff and puff--and the edifice of German politics collapsed like a house of cards." But this tragedy was not inevitable.

In Fateful Hours, award-winning historian Volker Ullrich chronicles the captivating story of the Republic, capturing a nation and its people teetering on the abyss. Born from the ashes of the First World War, the fledgling democracy was saddled with debt and political instability from its beginning. In its early years, a relentless chain of crises--hyperinflation, foreign invasion, and upheaval from the right and left--shook the republic, only letting up during a brief period of stability in the 1920s. Social and cultural norms were upended. Political murder was the order of the day. Yet despite all the challenges, the Weimar Republic was not destined for its ignoble end.

Drawing on letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, and other sources, Ullrich charts the many failed alternatives and missed opportunities that contributed to German democracy's collapse. In an immersive style that takes us to the heart of political power, Ullrich argues that, right up until January 1933, history was open. There was no shortage of opportunities to stop the slide into fascism. Just as in the present, it is up to us whether democracy lives or dies.

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Volker Ullrich is a German historian and the best-selling, award-winning author of Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939; Hitler: Downfall, 1939-1945; Eight Day in May; and Germany 1923. He lives in Germany.

Jefferson Chase has translated works by Thomas Mann and Wolfgang Schivelbusch, among others. He lives in Berlin.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: W. W. Norton & Company
• Date d'édition: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1324110546
• ISBN 13: 9781324110545
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 384
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible