An informative but a rather dry read。 Brenner explains the transformation of Munich from a liberal cosmopolitan cultural capital to a place with 'a pogrom atmosphere' and， in the words of Thomas Mann， 'the City of Hitler'。 The book， therefore， is important for how it helps to explain the rise of the Nazis， and the Holocaust。 The November Revolution of 1918/19 in Bavaria came out of the catastrophic effects of WWI and the surrender， and provoked a fanatical counter-revolution that blamed the Jews An informative but a rather dry read。 Brenner explains the transformation of Munich from a liberal cosmopolitan cultural capital to a place with 'a pogrom atmosphere' and， in the words of Thomas Mann， 'the City of Hitler'。 The book， therefore， is important for how it helps to explain the rise of the Nazis， and the Holocaust。 The November Revolution of 1918/19 in Bavaria came out of the catastrophic effects of WWI and the surrender， and provoked a fanatical counter-revolution that blamed the Jews for defeat-'the stab in the back'- identifying them as extreme leftist revolutionaries。 Brenner looks at the background of the major players in the socialist revolution and how their Jewishness affected their attitudes and politics。 The crushing of that revolution was rooted in antisemitism， the Jewishness of the revolutionaries used as a weapon against them， widening to an entrenched hatred and suspicion of the Jewish community as a whole， and deep divisions within that community as to the appropriate response- expressing open loyalty and belonging， or trying to hide from public life， or by leaving altogether。 Brenner shows how varied the Jewish community was: intellectuals， writers， bourgeois businessmen， socialists & revolutionaries， monarchists & republicans， prosperous assimilated families long-established in Munich who considered themselves Germans， and the desperately poor fleeing from the East。A timely and valuable contribution to the history of a dark period， one with， we know， troubling contemporary parallels。 For all that I've given the book only three stars because I found reading it too much of a slog。 。。。more