List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: ‘Please, God, Keep Me from Writing a Book about Books!’

Part I
Chapter 1. Sifting, Destroying, Controlling and Promoting: The Politics of Literature under the Swastika
Chapter 2. Bestsellers in a Dark Time: Their History and Readers
Chapter 3. Hitler’s and Goebbels’ Bedtime Reading: What Prominent Nazis Liked to Read

Part II: The Ten Most Successful Book Types in the Third Reich
Chapter 4. On the Foundation of Facts: Popular Non-Fiction Works
Chapter 5. The Colour of Money: NS Propaganda Texts
Chapter 6. Not So Quiet on the Western Front: The Boom of War Books
Chapter 7. Laughing through Life, Jolly Volk: Humour and Comedy
Chapter 8. From Medical Romance Novels to Science Fiction: The Themes and Authors of Modern Light Literature
Chapter 9. Commodifying Authentic People’s Literature: Karl May, Courths ­Mahler and the Heroes of Pulp Fiction
Chapter 10. Foreign Narrative Art: Bestsellers from Abroad
Chapter 11. In the Shadow of the Classics: Highbrow Literature
Chapter 12. Blood without Soil: The Successes of National (Social)ist Authors
Chapter 13. Field Grey Pays Dividends: Reading Fodder for Wartime

Conclusion: On the Trail of Bestsellers

Appendix: Selected Bestsellers and their Sales Figures

Bibliography
Index

Christian Adam is Head of the Publications Department at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr. His previous publications include Der Traum vom Jahre Null: Autoren, Bestseller, Leser (Galiani 2016).