The Death of Democracy

Extremely fine… with careful prose and scholarship, with fine thumbnail sketches of individuals and concise discussions of institutions and economics, he brings these events close to us. Hett… sensitively describes a moral crisis that preceded a moral catastrophe. – Timothy Snyder * The New York Times *Intelligent, well-informed… intriguing. Hett provides a lesson about the fragility of democracy and the danger of that complacent belief that liberal institutions will always protect us. – Gerard DeGroot * The Times *Readable and well-researched, with the injection of fresh contemporary voices, The Death of Democracy is also a thoughtful reflection of how our time more resembles the Thirties than the Noughties. * Daily Telegraph *Benjamin Carter Hett deftly summarises this dismal period… Hett refrains from poking the reader with too many obvious contemporary parallels, but he knew what he was doing when he left “German” out of his title. On the book’s final page, he lays his cards on the table… “Suddenly, the whole thing looks close and familiar.” Yes, it does. – Alex Ross * New Yorker *A superb explanation of how democracy died in Weimar Germany. Too much of this story seems painfully familiar today. – Gerard DeGroot * The Times, ‘Books of the Year’ *Hett’s brisk and lucid study offers compelling new perspectives inspired by current threats to free societies around the world … It is both eerie and enlightening how much of Hett’s account rings true in our time. * Washington Post *A fast-paced narrative enlivened by vignette and character sketches. * Financial Times *A welcome retelling of the demise of Weimar…Hett writes well, ably sketching the depressing tale. * BBC History Magazine *A brilliant account of the twentieth century’s great political catastrophe: the Nazi capture of power. Full of arresting images and ideas, this gripping new book charts the rise and fall of the first German republic, and the unlikely victory of Adolf Hitler. A timely reminder of the fragility of democracy and the dangers of extreme nationalism. – Nikolaus Wachsmann, author of KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration CampsFascinating. * Daily Telegraph, ‘Summer Reads’ *

Benjamin Carter Hett is a former trial lawyer and a professor of history at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of Death in the Tiergarten, Crossing Hitler, winner of the Fraenkel Prize, and Burning the Reichstag.