How and why did the Nazis seize power in Germany? Nearly 70 years on, the question remains heated and important discoveries continue to challenge long standing assumptions. Beginning with an overview of the historical context within which Nazism grew, this work looks at the foreign relations, politics and society of Weimar and in particular at the role of the elites in the rise of Nazism. The book questions the anatomy of Nazism itself: What lent Nazi ideology its coherence and credibility? What distinguished the Nazi's programme from their competitors' and how did they project it so effectively? How was Hitler able to put together and fund an organisation so quickly and effectively that it could launch a sustained assault on Weimar? Who supported the Nazis and what were their motives? Where, precisely, does Nazism belong in the history of Europe? Since the publication of the first edition, important new works have appeared and this new scholarship has been incorporated into the text