"Berghoff and Rauh expertly weave Kiehn's life into the historiography of twentieth- century Germany. They also tell the story of the German Mittelstand (owners of small to medium-sized companies) in the last century." * Central European History ".offers a welcome addition to English-language readers who are interested in learning more about protagonists beyond the usual suspects of Daimler, Deutsche Bank, or Krupp.It is an intriguing story, perhaps more in the context of local than of business history. But then again, all business history is local." * Journal of Modern History "Berghoff and Rauh provide an admirably well-researched picture of a Nazi provincial activist from the economic Mittelstand, and of the networks of corruption and cronyism that characterized the workings of the 'Third Reich' at the local and regional level.[They] do an exemplary job of integrating Kiehn's biography with local, regional, and national history, in a fine example of the use of microhistorical analysis (of an inherently mediocre figure) to shed light on business history and the workings of the Nazi regime at the provincial level.

" * European History Quarterly "By outlining Fritz Kiehn's career both in a rational-academic but also lively manner, the authors have succeeded in creating an unusually insightful and astute book on what was 'normal' in Germany in the twentieth century." * Die Zeit "The documentation and interpretation of what was usual makes [the book's] presentation interesting and worth reading. It is also worth reading, of course, because of the writing talents of both its authors, [who] have not only penned a rich socio-historical study, they have, quite simply. written a good book." * Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte "A historiographical masterwork, a successful example of how fruitful interdisciplinary historical research can be. It is about structures, milieus, mentalities, and microhistory. But it is also just as much about grand politics, economic history, and a very particular person whose contradictions the two authors managed to describe with brilliance." * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.