Riccardo Bavaj for the first time carves analytical paths through the seemingly tangled thicket that characterizes the relationship between National Socialism and modernity. His insight into the ambivalent nature of modernity guides his assessment, which takes into account all relevant aspects of the modernization debate in connection with the history of the "Third Reich": for instance, the concept of "Volksgemeinschaft," social policy, the social base of the NSDAP, family policy and the role of women in the "Third Reich," economic and armaments policy, the development of science, technology, and the environment, as well as art, culture, urban and housing development, and finally racial policy.