As a whole Backing Hitler brings together in a scholarly yet readable way a number of different facets of the German domestic scene. Journal of Jewish Studies Fascinating study of coercion and consent. Not only does [Gellately] provide an admirable synthesis of the mass of secondary literature ... that has appeared over the past decade or so, but he also contributes important new insights through his own research. It is a major contribution to the study of Nazism. Times Literary Supplement An intriguing and illuminating new book. Niall Ferguson, Mail on Sunday Just how much the ordinary German knew about the apparatus of terror and discrimination in the Hitler years is the subject of Robert Gellately's fascinating and disturbing account of the bonds that drew regime and people together after 1933. Richard Overy, The Sunday Telegraph In 1933 Germans hankered for a return to traditional values of order, family, discipline, work. Noone could forsee how such ordinary aspirations would eventuate in that most extreme act, genocide. But this is one lesson the Nazis teach us and, thanks to Robert Gellately's fine book, it is available for all to learn. David Cesarani, The Independent Well-written and scholarly ... fascinating but amazingly neglected subject ... this book deserves a wide readership. History Today
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