National socialist cultural policy

For many years Nazi cultural policy has been a taboo subject among historians, but the success of several recent books and exhibitions has opened up an extremely interesting area of research. This collection of essays by German and American scholars studies the official Nazi attitude to theatre, film, architecture, art, and literature and shows how rapidly the vibrant and diverse culture of the Weimar period was torn to pieces in public campaigns of vilification and persecution, to be replaced by a notionally 'wholesome' official culture. The important part these campaigns played in the establishment of Nazi rule - and the high priority given to them by Hitler and his closest associates - make these essays essential reading for an understanding of the nature of the Nazi state.