Stormtroopers

“Weighty, well argued, thorough and deeply researched.”—Richard J. Evans, London Review of Books

“[An] excellent new history of the Sturmableilungen. . . a convincing thesis, supported with immense scholarship and research in national, regional, and local archives, providing a rich and detailed history.”
—Taylor Downing, Military History Monthly

“Brings a genuine rigour to the subject. He is not content simply to retread the stereotypical, half-formed narrative of the SA. . . Siemens portrays the SA as an integral part of the Nazi vision for society.”
—Roger Moorhouse, BBC History

“An exhaustive examination . . . [a]  revelatory scholarly survey . . . assiduously researched and filled with illustrative examples and case studies covering the development of the SA, its role in a fight against Versailles and Weimar, its cruelties, its survival, and its legacy today.  . . . A considerable work that promises to be the preferred text in English on the brown-shirted stormtroopers for some time to come.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Siemens’s book is now the definitive narrative account of the SA."—Richard Steigmann-Gall, Journal of Modern History

Winner of the Outstanding Academic Title for 2018 award sponsored by Choice

"This excellent and original book is a tour de force, original, scholarly, and readable, as well as being informed by a solid grounding in the latest theoretical literature. I recommend it with great enthusiasm." Robert Gellately, author of Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany

"An excellent contribution to the vast literature on Nazi Germany. Based on meticulous research, Daniel Siemens’ Stormtroopers is not only the most comprehensive but also the best history of Hitler’s Brownshirts available in any language." Robert Gerwarth, author of Hitler's Hangman
 

"A definitive study of the Stormtroopers. It offers genuinely new perspectives, integrating the familiar story of SA violence with the important history of that organization from 1934 to 1945. Quite simply, this is the best book on its subject." Richard Bessel, author of Germany 1945
 

"Daniel Siemens demonstrates in this excellent piece of scholarship that the SA did not, as is often assumed, fade into insignificance after the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 but continued to function until the very last days of the war and played a significant role in the Holocaust, in the Occupied Territories and on the home front. Thoroughly researched and very readable, Siemens has made an important contribution to our understanding of an often ignored aspect of the Third Reich." Adrian Weale, author of The SS

"For the foreseeable future, Daniel Siemens’s study will be the book of reference on the National Socialist stormtroopers." Professor Michael Wildt, Humboldt University Berlin