Timothy W. Ryback, a Dutch historian and the director of the Hague-based Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, has written numerous excellent books about the Holocaust, including his latest, Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power. Ryback’s 12-month snapshot of a pivotal period in Germany’s descent into totalitarianism carefully and persuasively captures the nuance of what might have been had a determined, monomaniacal Hitler not steamrolled the entire political class. 

Indeed, perhaps surprisingly, the Nazis’ standing in late 1932 was parlous, and the Weimar system squandered a golden opportunity to stamp them out entirely. The party’s rise had been meteoric: Membership exploded from 27,000 in 1925 to 800,000 in 1931, and the July 31, 1932, Reichstag election saw the Nazis secure a stunning 37% vote share, amounting to 230 seats in the 600-member body. In August, Reich President Paul von Hindenburg summoned Hitler to intensive discussions about forming a governing coalition, urging him to embrace the Weimar spirit. This effort flopped abjectly, though, as Hitler spurned Hindenburg’s offer, prompting the elder statesman’s warning “to conduct yourself in opposition in an honorable manner and remember your responsibility and duty to the Fatherland.”