The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda

Welch, in a work that has been revised several times, has produced one of the best works on Nazi propaganda, its effectiveness, and how it was utilized. I felt the best aspect of the book was at the beginning as Welch described how propaganda was utilized by Joseph Goebbels and the Nazis in the late 1920s and early 1930s as they sought to gain power. Once they did gain control of the government, Welch has some really interesting chapters on Nazi propaganda in art, literature, and especially newspapers and the movies. I found these chapters to be fascinating and very well written. Welch also does a really good job of explaining how other historians have explained Nazi propaganda and its effectiveness and how his findings contrast. The only negative about the book is I felt it lost steam a bit when describing the war years, with the possible exception of Welch's discussion of Goebbels' attempts at mobilizing the German citizenry behind a "total war." All in all, I think this is probably one of the best works on Nazi propaganda and is required reading for anyone interested in Nazi Germany. I should note that the book is very well written and is quite readable.