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Michael Burleigh sets Nazi Germany in a European context, showing how the Third Reich's abandonment of liberal democracy, decency and tolerance was widespread in the Europe of the period. He seeks to show how a radical, pseudo-religious movement led by an oddity with dazzling demagogic talents, seemed to offer salvation to a Germany exhausted by war, depression and galloping inflation. It was the politics of faith and Burleigh shows the consequences of the demise of the rule of law in favour of state authorized terror and brutality. The underlying premise of the book is that there are good and bad individuals, not good and bad nations. It recreates the complexities of life under a totalitarian dictatorship, which for four years ruled most of Europe, and rejects the notion that the Germans were either uniquely evil or uniquely uncivilized.