Christian Adam examines how books came into being under the Nazis, how they became bestsellers-sometimes against the will of the rulers-and which books were actually read. He writes the history of the bestsellers in the darkest epoch of the German past, thus opening a new perspective on the mentality of the Germans between 1933 and 1945.

Despite the displacement of countless authors, frequent bans of specific titles, and high-profile book burnings, the German book industry boomed during the Nazi period. Notwithstanding the millions of copies of Mein Kampf that were sold, the era's most popular books were diverse and often surprising in retrospect, despite an oppressive ideological and cultural climate: Huxley's Brave New World was widely read in the 1930s, while Saint-Exupéry's Wind, Sand and Stars was a great success during the war years. Bestsellers of the Third Reich surveys this motley collection of books, along with the circumstances of their publication, to provide an innovative new window into the history of Nazi Germany.