In this highly praised study hailed by Booklist as disturbing, brutally honest, and scrupulously fair, Pierre Aycoberry, the celebrated author of The Nazi Question,combines extraordinary mastery of German history with original research for an unparalleled account of life under Hitlers Third Reich.

Aycoberry uncovers the struggles of individuals and social and professional groups who stood up to the pressures of the Nazi Party and often paid a high price, while he also sheds light on the attempts of othersmainly upper- and middle-class professionalsto salvage or improve their positions by casting their lot with the Fuhrer. In this complex answer to the easy judgments passed by many, Pierre Aycoberry writes what the Washington Post Book World has called a subtle book that eschews facile generalizations and sensational accusations, and is full of prudent qualifications and warnings that what was true in one place and one time was not necessarily true twenty miles away or one year later.