Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (1964)

I could write at length about this book, not simply because of my consuming interest in the subject, but because I was one of the author's students around the time this great work was published. Perhaps I will do just that by revising this quickie review later. Anyway, this book is essential reading for somebody who wants to understand the National Socialist mind-set, really understand, and not simply engage in slogan-mongering from the Left, the Right, or the Center. It should be borne in mind that this is an academic/scholarly work, and not for the faint of heart, or for those with no serious background in European cultural history. It should likewise be recalled that it was the first English-language work of it kind. That is said with full knowledge of the Peter Viereck's earlier METAPOLITICS, which, though very righteous, is very spotty both in research and interpretation.
The author knew his material thoroughly, from heritage, from personal experience, and from additional research -- including such seemingly bizarre side-trips as tracking down ex-Nazi Sun-worshippers in Egypt and studying American racist newspapers. His interpretations stand almost a half-century's test of time, and help us to understand and to feel how one of the most cultured societies in history could turn, not merely on a whim, but with sustained dedication and a kind of self-sacrifice, to orgies of irrationalism and mass-murder. The answers lie is such obscure places as the middle echelons of the universities, the pop-fiction of three generations and the youth movement (out of the Ledehosen into the SS uniform: brr).