Praise for Takeover : "Timothy W. Ryback's choice to make his new book, Takeover . a specific chronicle of a single year, 1932, seems a wise, even an inspired one. Ryback details, week by week, day by day, and sometimes hour by hour, how a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election . Democracy doesn't die in darkness. It dies in bright midafternoon light."-- Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker "If you ever thought that history is only moved by big, sweeping forces, whether of economics or creed or nature itself, think again. In this riveting, intimate account of the final months in Hitler's rise to power, Tim Ryback makes it plain that simple luck, bald ambition and fallible human hearts can be drivers of earth-changing events.

"-- Max Rodenbeck, Berlin bureau chief, The Economist "Ryback admirably capture[s] the shifting moods, political stances, and risk-taking as well as the speculations, uncertainties, and confusion of the political figures who did not know how the story he narrates would end . Ryback's narrative and his portraits of major figures are riveting."-- New York Review of Books "How does a flawed republic become something entirely different? We know how the Nazi regime ended, but think too little about how it began. This admirable account shows us how fragile and avoidable were those beginnings, and helps us to reflect upon our own predicaments."-- Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny "An expert account of the dizzying months when Hitler solidified his power in Germany. A masterfully narrated story of how a democracy committed suicide, with lessons for today."-- Kirkus Reviews , starred review "[A] riveting blow-by-blow account of the six months leading up to Adolf Hitler's January 1933 appointment as Germany's chancellor . A dire and remarkably astute depiction of how fickle and contingent the forces of history can be.

"-- Publisher's Weekly , starred review "That history is not as inevitable as most might believe forms an unsettling undertone throughout the book . Takeover is startlingly relevant history, well-wrought and splendidly researched, that reveals how democracies can die democratically."-- Shelf Awareness.