17 Dec '09 00:11>2 edits
Originally posted by FMFPerhaps it is because I have read so much on the era and subject that I really did not find a whole lot new and his style is dreary compared to Shirer. No slam on Burleigh as he is certainly erudite and did not mischaracterize the era or the regime. Indeed the whole Nazi thing was a quasi-religion but Burleigh's is not an original idea as this is touched on in "Eichman in Jerusalem, the Banality of Evil,Hannah Arendt".
I thought Burleigh got to the heart of the whole thing of the Nazi phenomenon being a surrogate religion rather than a mere political ideology - and thus, for me, encapsulated the psychological horror of it all more tellingly than Shirer. But they are both very worthy books, for sure.
I enjoyed the book, though and again thank you for the rec.