Kristallnacht 1938

In this accessible and well-argued account of the pogrom of November 1938, Alan Steinweis draws on new source material to make the argument that the Reichskristallnacht was a popular act of violence, initiated by the upper echelons of the Nazi party and carried out by the SA rank and file, who were assisted in their task by the police and a wide swath of the population, who in turn used the opportunity to humiliate their neighbours and loot the property of their fellow citizens.