The essay will demonstrate a systematic and analytical understanding of its subject, including the theoretical and historiographical issues surrounding it, and will be based on a detailed and extensive research in the literature, through use of an appropriate critical apparatus.

This module will examine some of the key issues surrounding the emergence of the Nazi dictatorship in one of the most advanced societies of the twentieth-century world. While paying attention to the European and indeed global context of nationalism and racist thinking, the module will introduce you to the debate on continuity in German history, and the extent to which negative tendencies in the imperial and Weimar periods might have enhanced many Germans' receptivity to Nazism. The nature of the Nazi regime, in particular its twin obsessions with race and imperialist expansion, will be examined, as will the ways in which this translated into policy towards women and the family, Jews and other Europeans. The module will conclude by examining the catastrophic consequences of the Nazi world view, leading to world war and the murder of the European Jews.

Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History (London: Pan Books 2001)
Evans, Richard J. The Coming of the Third Reich (London: Allen Lane 2003)
Kershaw, Ian. The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, 4th ed. (London: Edward Arnold 2000)
Noakes, J. & Pridham, G. (eds.) Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader, vol 1: The Rise to Power 1919-1934 (Exeter: Exeter UP 1983)
Noakes, J. & Pridham, G. (eds.) Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader, vol 2: State, Economy and Society, 1933-1939 (Exeter: Exeter UP 1983)
Noakes, J. & Pridham, G. (eds.) Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader, vol 3: Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination (Exeter: Exeter UP, 1995)

12 hours of lectures which will provide the broad framework for the module and outline the main themes. 6 hours of fortnightly seminars which will provide the opportunity to clarify your understanding and discuss issues raised by the lectures. 126 hours of independent study time to allow for individual study, but including scheduled tutorial guidance on reading material and the preparation of assessed work.

Recommended Library books and journals.
The Blackboard virtual learning environment will be available (where relevant) to support this module. Details will be supplied in the module handbook.