A Brief History of the Birth of the Nazis: How the Freikorps Blazed a Trail for Hitler by Nigel H. Jones

A Brief History of the Birth of the Nazis: How the Freikorps Blazed a Trail for Hitler by Nigel H. Jones covers the creation, deployment and absorption of the paramilitary right wing groups in Germany after World War One. This is part of the larger "A Brief History" series it's actually a decent size over 100,000 words. I'm not too sure what they'd consider a long history. Jones talks about not only the precursor of the NAZI Brown Shirts but others as well. He seems to be it pains to find members of the Freikorps who disagreed with Hitler and Nazism. The book is heavy on philosophical explanations for why the groups were popular. I'm not sure if it was really that complex. There's material on the various terrorist actions and attempted takeovers that they were responsible for. I was unaware of many of their actions in the east. Contains appendices and suggestions for further reading.

Recommended!