This work offers a sociopolitical analysis of German culture and its role in the Third Reich. Throughout, the author seeks to understand why the arts in Germany were such contested territory, not just for the National Socialists but also for most Germans. Since at least the nineteenth century, German cultural heritage was deeply embedded in nationalist identity and ideologies and thus connected to state power. The Nazis certainly understood that the arts conferred political legitimacy and offered a path to overcome the class divisions that so plagued the nation. For Hermand, National Socialist cultural policies and practices played a decisive role in securing Germans' support for dictatorship. He divides his study into three sections, treating first the Nazis' interpretation of German culture and then the responses of artists who either retreated into inner emigration or fled abroad. Within each section, Hermand analyzes architecture, the visual arts, literature, music, literature, theater, radio, film, and the press, as well as the consequences the Nazi regime had for each area.

Hermand emphasizes that Nazi cultural policies were never consistent. Here he confronts directly a central problem in understanding the Third Reich's cultural program. While supporters of the regime agreed that Germany had to be cleansed of leftist, Jewish, modernist and other so-called degenerate elements that had supposedly infiltrated the arts, they were divided about just what was meant by a pure, German culture. Scholars, too, have struggled with how best to characterize Nazi culture. Descriptors such as “reactionary modernism,” heroic/völkisch art, or simply racialist propaganda all work at one moment–only to fall short in the next. Yet, the alternative–a monolithic, singular Nazi culture–also fails to capture the essence of the arts in the Third Reich. Hermand responds to the contradictory nature of Nazi culture by embracing its complexity, rather than by trying to resolve it. He argues that the National Socialists were able to harness the arts for their dictatorship precisely because their ambiguous, often contradictory policies satisfied the majority's cultural needs.

As Hermand demonstrates, by 1934 the Nazis had adapted a pragmatic approach that enabled the arts to overcome the class divisions in German society. With the defeat of their cultural enemies, they avoided anything radical or revolutionary. Instead, the Nazis promoted traditional artistic styles for the educated elites, who were thus persuaded to believe that the German cultural heritage had been preserved. But Hermand goes further, explaining that the Nazis also offered the middle classes and workers a popular culture, disseminated through the mass media of radio and film. Thus, for example, the upper classes attended symphonies and museums while the masses tuned into popular musical and entertainment programs, all provided by the Third Reich. Such continuity in the high arts and mass culture served to cloak the radical nature of the regime. It offered Germans of all classes the illusion of normalcy and the maintenance, even defense, of their cultural heritage.

The Nazis' success in exploiting the mass media, and popular culture in particular, also helps to explain why neither inner emigration nor exile offered a successful antidote to National Socialism. Artists who rejected the Third Reich yet remained in Germany were trapped between accommodation and nonconformity. As Hermand rightly observes, inner emigration was possible only for a very few artists and extremely difficult to negotiate. If their critique of the regime was too hidden, too cryptic, then their message would fail to be heard. Yet, successful opposition risked arrest or such intense surveillance that producing work was not possible at all. Artists in exile were cut off from any potential audience as well. Language barriers made reception in their new homes difficult, if not impossible. Hermand describes in vivid detail exiles' attempts to create a unified, dissenting voice through various organizations, publications, and exhibitions. But their ideological and aesthetic divisions prevented any meaningful solidarity. As a result, while the exiles, too, sought to defend a pure German culture, they, unlike the Nazis, were unable to find a ready audience.

As a translation of Kultur in finsteren Zeiten. Nazifaschismus, Innere Emigration, Exil (2010), the text suffers from none of the awkwardness often found in translated works. The prose is crisp and numerous illustrations help to inform Hermand's argument. A real strength of the work is its very breadth, for Hermand is the rare scholar who can treat all of the high arts as well as mass media in great detail. This breadth does demand prior knowledge of, or at least familiarity with, German architecture, music, art, and literature. While there is a complete index and useful bibliography, there are no footnotes that document the wealth of sources the author uses, a real disappointment for such a high-quality work. That said, this is a masterful treatment of German culture between 1933 and 1945, and it deserves a wide readership.