This book is a triumph of archival research and an invaluable exploration of an often misunderstood turning point in modern history. Ryback takes a day by day, nearly minute by minute, approach to tracking the series of seemingly innocuous choices and social slights starting only in late 1932 that lead directly to the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Because of this approach there are a lot of names and a lot of details, so aside from the heaviness of the subject, this one is not a book that can be read passively, but it also isn’t inaccessible for casual history readers. If I have one major takeaway after finishing, it’s that none of what comes after was unstoppable, but it also wasn’t as neat of a “takeover” as our popular culture likes to believe, which in some ways makes it much more horrifying to see play out. Overall, this is a fantastic and vitally important book and one that I would recommend to anyone wanting a better understanding of not just a specific moment in global history, but also the devastating consequences of seemingly unrelated choices.