Annotated Bibliography for Nazism

¶ … 2012). Nazism. Accessed 3 May 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism

This encyclopedia-like article aims to describe the concept of Nazism from an historical perspective, educating the general public on what the general sentiments, feelings, and politics of the Nazis and the overall perspective of Nazism truly were, and of how the attitudes, values, and beliefs of Nazism came about and were able to spread in Germany and beyond. A purely descriptive methodology is used, with reference to many other historical documents and text, with the result of a comprehensive and multifaceted view of Nazism and the implications that this political and philosophical belief system has on humanity and on the trajectory of history during the twentieth century. No recommendations are made, however it is concluded that the Nazi party and Nazism are more complex and less understood than thought by many people, especially members of the general public that have not examined the issue.

Hayek, F. (1944). The Socialist Roots of Naziism. In The Road to Serfdom. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, pp. 183-98.

In this essay and historical examination, the author attempts to provide an explanation for how Nazism came to flourish not as simply a right wing and fascist element, but through the combination of what are traditionally though of as "left-wing" and "right-wing" political forces. By examining the socialist roots of Nazism, Hayek is exploring the less-examined, less-understood, and even the less acknowledged aspects of the history of the Nazi party and the movement towards Nazism. Using an analytical approach that identifies key figures, events, and historical trends in Germany and the world during the development and progress of the Nazi party and Nazism, Hayek concludes that there was a movement both by the far-left and the far-right against the liberalism of the period following World War I, and that it was the combination and conflagration of these forces and sentiments that led to the rise of the Nazi party.

Bessel, R. (1986). Political violence and the rise of Nazism. New York: Yale University Press.

This academic book, largely inaccessible to those without a decent background knowledge of the topic, discusses the way in which authoritarian violence both allowed and was causal of the rise of Nazism and the dominance of the Nazi party in the period between the two World Wars, and specifically focusing on the use of storm troopers prior to Hitler's actual rise to full power in Germany. Extensive historical detail is provided and analyzed, with a great deal of searching through primary records form the period investigated in order to demonstrate the harbingers of Nazism before the party and its ideals were actually solidified. This gives an understanding of the way in which Nazism truly developed, not as a belief system or perspective that imposed violence, but rather as one that explicitly and directly grew out of existing political violence -- an opportune movement rather than a truly controlling one at the outset, the author concludes.