By the summer of 1933, Hitler had established a totalitarian dictatorship in Germany. He was, in Machiavelli's famous phrasing, "feared." But he also wanted to be "loved." This is the first of three episodes exploring how the Nazis popularized dictatorship in the mid-1930s, focusing on the issue of economic recovery. After more than three years of economic hardship (1929-1933), the Nazis helped two million people find work within a year of coming to power, and they took the German economy to ful...
May 04, 2026•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 47
By the summer of 1934, the Nazi Dictatorship was well established. Yet Hitler's control over Germany was not completely secure, due in part to rivalries between the boisterous SA and the German army. To cement his absolute control over German society, he needed to bring both to heel. This episode explores the "Night of the Long Knives," Hitler's bloody purge of the Nazi Party that took place in June 1934. It explores the positions of the three main actors in the drama - the SA, the Army and the ...
Apr 09, 2026•1 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 46
So far our podcast had provided a broad overview of the Nazi seizure of power. In today's episode, we look more closely at what this experience was like at the local level, focusing on the small German town of Northeim, an idyllic city of 10,000 people located in central Germany. Here, the Nazis grew from an otherwise unremarkable splinter party in 1928 to producing clear electoral majorities by 1932. The episode examines the secrets to the Nazis' meteoric rise at the local level, as well as the...
Mar 16, 2026•31 min•Season 4Ep. 5
In our second episode on the topic of Gleichschaltung or the "coordination" of German civil society, we explore the responsibility individuals had in the process of conforming to Nazi ideology. Simply put, I argue that while the Nazis did use violence and terror to intimidate Germans into obedience, social forces including economic opportunism and the desire to be "left alone" also led people to submit willingly to totalitarianism. In particular, the episodes explores case studies such as Gustav...
Feb 26, 2026•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Many revolutions have resulted in the creation of a dictatorship, of the concentration of all political power in the hands of a single individual or party. But part of what makes the Nazi Revolution so terrifying is the way the Nazis simultaneously conquered civil society, nazifying all social and civic institutions in the span of just five months. This episode begins to walk readers through the process of Gleichschaltung or "coordination," which forced all institutions in Germany to nazify them...
Feb 09, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 44
One of the hallmarks of a modern democracy is a belief in the importance of the rule of law. The state may be capable of using tremendous violence against its citizenry, but this power is curtailed by a series of rules and regulations that are both rational (i.e., the ability to arrest criminals) and written down so that people know what is allowed and what isn't. As part of their quest for total power, however, the Nazis tried to dispense with these traditional notions, selling the idea that th...
Jan 19, 2026•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 43
There is perhaps no better symbol of Nazi barbarism than the concentration camp. It was here that victims not only lost their political rights (freedom of movement, right to due process, etc.), but where they were often stripped of their very humanity through torture, murder and other sadistic acts. The camps, one could say, became a sort of hell on earth. How did this happen? As the episode reveals, the camps were not initially intended to function this way; indeed, they were supposed to be a t...
Dec 29, 2025•31 min•Season 4Ep. 4
On Jan. 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany. While this was certainly an important historical moment, it's worth noting that Hitler was not yet a dictator. He faced a number of legal and practical limitations on his power, and many contemporaries expected him to quickly fail. And yet, just five months later all other political parties - even those closely allied with the Nazis - no longer existed. This episode walks reader through the why and how of the story, discussing event...
Dec 08, 2025•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 42
On January 30, 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as the country's new Chancellor, the third attempt in less than a year to create a stable German government. The result of course was dictatorship, war and eventually genocide. But was Hitler's appointment inevitable? For as historians such as Henry Ashby Turner have argued, on the immediate eve of his appointment Hitler's Nazi Party was broke and its electoral support was waning. Could Hindenburg ...
Nov 17, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 41
In October 1929, the New York stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression. With their economy closely tied to the supply of cheap American capital, Germans felt the impact of the crash more acutely than most other nations. Soon the country's economy was in ruins, with millions unemployed. This episode charts the relationship between German politics and economic between 1929 and 1932, showing how economic suffering led to growing cynicism about the Weimar system. In 1930 German President P...
Oct 27, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 40
In the spring of 1925, a newly free Adolf Hitler ordered his bodyguard/chauffeur Julius Schreck to create a new protection detail. Eventually known as the SS, its membership would fluctuate between 250 and 1000 men over the next four years. And yet, perhaps no institution in Nazi Germany strikes more fear into the hearts of modern listeners. This episode documents how the SS grew from an otherwise unremarkable Nazi formation into a sprawling empire that included effective control over the police...
Oct 13, 2025•38 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In the Reichstag elections of May 1928, the Nazi Party took home just 2.6% of the vote. Two years later they would explode onto the German political scene, taking 18.3% of the vote and becoming the second largest party in Germany. This episode uncovers the secrets to the Nazis electoral success, showcasing how new techniques and strategies helped distinguish them from their political rivals on both the left and the right. Topics covered include Joseph Goebbels and the use of violence; Heinrich H...
Sep 22, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 39
When Adolf Hitler left prison in Dec. 1924, his Nazi Party lay in ruins. Officially banned by the Bavarian government, he was also prohibited from public speech in many German states. And yet, eight years later he would become Chancellor of Germany, head of the country's largest political party. How did this happen? This episode begins to answer that question by looking at the rebuilding of the Nazi Party between 1925 and 1928. In addition to discussing some of the key bureaucratic changes that ...
Aug 26, 2025•1 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 38
From Indiana Jones, to Captain America to Hellboy, the theme of Nazis and the Occult has long fascinated Hollywood. But is there any truth behind these fictional representations? This partial Patreon preview explores the bizarre world of late 19th/early 20th century occultism, elucidating its tangential links to the birth and development of the Nazi Party. As we'll see, Hitler was not "nuts" about the occult. But some prominent Nazis such as Rudolf Hess and Heinrich Himmler were at least occult ...
Aug 12, 2025•30 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In Nov 1918, Germans set out on a radical experiment: the building of a new, fully democratic state known as the Weimar Republic. Unfortunately, of course, it didn't last. But the question remains why? And what should this tell us about the strength of our own democracies? This episode explores the foundation of the Weimar Republic, discussing some of its early successes and failures. It highlights some of the initial problems encountered in the construction of Weimar democracy, including the sp...
Jul 22, 2025•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 37
At the time of its foundation in early 1919, the Nazi Party was a group of several dozen dilettantes who at first glance appeared to stand little chance of changing history. And yet, by 1923 it had grown to over 50K members - enough to convince Hitler that they could seize control of Bavaria. This episode explores the secrets to the Nazi Party's success, showing how they built a politically effective, modern mass movement. Topics covered include why Hitler was such a convincing speaker, the "soc...
Jun 23, 2025•2 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Adolf Hitler is one of the most notorious villains of history. But how did he become HITLER? This partial preview episode documents his early history, from his boyhood in Linz to his Bohemian wandering in Vienna to his exploits during the First World War. It tracks the origins of his political philosophy, showing how much of his political and anti-Semitic wakening occurred only after the Great War, when he participated in ideological training classes sponsored by the German army. Topics covered ...
May 22, 2025•43 min•Season 4Ep. 1
There are many places one could start a history of Nazi Germany, but we begin our series with the experience of the First World War. From the heady August days when Germans were flush with the joy of expectant victory to war and revolution in 1918, the war refashioned and brutalized German politics. Old authorities like the monarchy were discarded, to be replaced by a more wholesome form of politics that centered on the experiences of the front line soldier. This episode demonstrates the ways in...
Apr 25, 2025•1 hr 45 min•Season 1Ep. 35
This episode - the first of 12 on the history of Nazi Germany - begins by asking the question if Nazis still matter in an age when so much of the post-World War II consensus (global institutions, free trade, collective defense) is being abandoned? It highlights the role played in this process by figures such as Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and the Alternativ fur Deutschland Party (AFD), who along with social media are rapidly reworking popular perceptions of the Nazi past. It also provides answers ...
Apr 08, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Continuing our discussion of the 1967 Six-Day War, this episode discusses the outbreak of hostilities with Israeli Operation Focus on 5 June 1967. In addition to covering some operational details, we also sketch out the rest of the history of the war, including discussions of Egyptian and Israeli war planning and the evolution of events on the battlefield(s). The episode concludes with an epilogue about the way the war changed politics in the main combatant states, including Egypt, Jordan, Israe...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 46 min•Season 3Ep. 20
In June 1967, tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors once again led to the outbreak of war. This episodes examines the causes of the renewed violence, ranging from long term factors such as Nasser's Arab nationalism and the lack of a solution to the Palestinian refugee crisis to shorter term issues such as the evolution of regional politics, fights over water usage and Israeli reprisal attacks. Topics covered include not Nasser and Egypt, but also the rise of the Ba'ath Party and Hafez a...
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 19
On the afternoon of October 29, 1856, Israeli forces launched a surprise attack into the Sinai peninsula, part of a coordinated plan with Britain and France for the European powers to retake possession of the Suez canal. This episode covers the course of the war, as well as its legacy. Topics covered include: the Cold War context and the run-up to war, British, French, Israeli and Egyptian strategic planning, global reactions, and the meaning of the war for Israelis, Palestinians and also Gamal ...
Feb 25, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Season 3Ep. 18
After eight years of a tense peace, war came suddenly again to the Middle East in October 1956. This episode answers why, exploring the deeper history behind the building of the Suez Canal from 1859-69, the origins of British colonialism in the region and the rise of various anti-colonial Egyptian movements such as Wafd and the Muslim Brotherhood. We also go into detail about the meteoric rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose efforts to reshape Egyptian and Middle Eastern politics played a significa...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 36 min•Season 3Ep. 17
By the late summer of 1949, the frozen battle lines between the Arab and Israeli armies led to the realization that Palestinian refugees would not soon be returning to their former homes. This episode charts the fascinating and tragic story of the international response to the refugee crisis from 1949 to the mid-50s, including the creation of UNRWA in Dec. 1949. In particular, it shows how UN thinkers approached the issue from an economic standpoint, believing that a massive program of economic ...
Jan 06, 2025•50 min•Season 3Ep. 16
In 1948 the Nakbah resulted in the flight and expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians. This episode chronicles their experiences, focusing on the way the refugee crisis unfolded in three geographical contexts: Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon. Among other things, it highlights some of the initial challenges and reactions encountered in trying provide humanitarian assistance to them, the effects the refugees had on the local communities and the ways in which the refugee experience evolved over the co...
Dec 18, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 15
In 1948, Palestinians suffered both dispossession and expulsion as a result of losing the civil war. But what became of the idea of the Palestinian nation? This episode explores the political and cultural fate of Palestinian nationalism in the 1950s, highlighting how and why in the postwar period Arab-controlled territory did not become an independent Palestinian state. At the same time, it also explores the ways in which the Nakbah paved the way for new expressions of Palestinian identity, help...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In the second half of our installment on the building of the Israeli national community in the late 1940s and 1950s, we examine how Israelis paid for the massive expenses involved in resettling so many European and Middle Eastern Jews in the immediate aftermath of independence. We also discuss the fate of Palestinians living inside the new Israeli state, highlighting the discrimination they faced as outsiders in the Jewish state. Finally, we also discuss cultural efforts to develop a sense of Is...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 13
In this episode we return to the history of Israel/Palestine, looking at how Israelis built a national community in the late 1940s and early 1950s. As we'll see, this project was neither as straightforward nor as easy as Zionist ideology supposed, complicated by the influx of hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from both Europe and the Middle East in the late 1940s/early 1950s. The first part of the episode looks at the construction of the nascent Israeli state, while the second half focuse...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 12
This episodes recounts the downfall of the Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini. Topics covered include his initial dismissal in July 1943 (9:01), the 46 days (35:13), the German plot to rescue and restore him (43:40) and the Republic of Salo and the partisan civil war (50:15). The episode concludes with some final reflections on the failures of fascism (1:04:46). Support the show For more information on History Off the Page, check out our website www.historyoffthepage.com! Or you can support the s...
Sep 24, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 33
This episodes examines the history of the Italian military under Benito Mussolini, shedding light on its oft-ignored contributions to the Axis war machine. Among other things, it highlights the role Mussolini played in resisting Hitler before 1935 (11:00), a discussion of Italian colonialism (19:25), the fateful 1935 invasion of Ethiopia (29:07), the Italian role in World War II (53:12), the invasion of Egypt (1:03:52) and concludes with some observations about the dissonance between the rhetori...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 32
