Travellers in the Third Reich: THE RISE OF FASCISM THROUGH THE EYES OF EVERYDAY PEOPLE
By: Julia Boyd
Witness the rise of the Third Reich through the perspective of outsiders – extraordinary tales from visitors and travellers drawn to the ‘New Germany’ of the 1930s.
The events that took place in Germany between 1919 and 1945 were dramatic and terrible but there were also moments of confusion, of doubt – of hope even. Without the benefit of hindsight, how did travellers to the country at this extraordinary time interpret what was unfolding in front of their eyes? How easy was it to know what was actually going on, to grasp the essence of National Socialism, to remain untouched by Nazi propaganda or predict the Holocaust?
Travellers in the Third Reich is an extraordinary history of the rise of the Nazis based on fascinating first-hand accounts of outsiders drawn to the country, a multitude of voices and stories, including students, politicians, musicians, diplomats, schoolchildren, communists, scholars, athletes, poets, journalists, fascists, artists, tourists, even celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett. Their experiences create a remarkable three-dimensional picture of Germany under Hitler – one so palpable that the reader will feel, hear, even breathe the atmosphere.
These are the accidental eyewitnesses to history. Disturbing, absurd, moving, and ranging from the deeply trivial to the deeply tragic, their tales give a fresh insight into the complexities of the Third Reich, its paradoxes and its ultimate destruction.
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THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP THREE BESTSELLER AND WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE MONTH
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History 2018
One of the Daily Telegraph‘s Best Books of 2017
A Guardian ‘Readers’ Choice’ Best Book of 2017
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‘A compelling historical narrative’ Daily Telegraph
‘Fascinating’ Spectator
‘Absorbing and stimulating’ Mail on Sunday
Discover more stories of ordinary lives at the crossroads of history in Julia Boyd’s new book A Village in the Third Reich – OUT NOW
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A compelling historical narrative . . . both flatters and challenges our hindsight. [Boyd] lets her voices, skilfully orchestrated, speak for themselves, which they do with great eloquence
- Daily Telegraph -
Fascinating . . . surreal scenes pepper Boyd’s deep trawl of travellers’ tales from the scores of visitors who were drawn to the ‘new Germany’ in the 1930s
- Spectator -
Contains many amazing anecdotes . . . It warns us that we, with our all-seeing hindsight, might ourselves have been fooled or beguiled or inclined to make excuses, had we been there at the time. I can thoroughly recommend it as a contribution to knowledge and an absorbing and stimulating book in itself
- Peter Hitchins, Mail on Sunday -
Meticulously researched . . . Julia Boyd’s research has been exhaustive. She has visited archives all over the world and assembled a vast and entertaining cast of travellers . . . makes for thought-provoking reading
- Caroline Moorehead, Literary Review