This course explores the political structure of the German state under National Socialist rule, from Hitler's rise to power to the Reichskristallnacht. Were the Nazis "fascists" or "totalitarians"? Did the social changes instituted by the Nazis constitute a revolution, or were they a reaction meant to prevent one? Did the Nazis possess any coherent ideology or governing philosophy? How was the Nazi government able to successfully radicalize the population of one of the most advanced nations in the world against their friends, neighbors, and fellow-citizens? We will read a range of primary sources, as well as texts from historians and political theoreticians such as Franz Neumann, Ernst Fraenkel, Detlev Preukert, Adam Tooze, and Hannah Arendt.