The Great Disorder: Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924

While this book probably won't appeal to the average run-of-the-mill history buff, it will attract anyone who wants to lose himself in a vary narrow, hyper-specialized area of history.

In many ways the economic disaster of Germany between 1914-1924 reworked the foundation of modern finance. For the first time in western history a political system was literally straightjacketed into salvaging an impossible economic situation. This book goes into exhaustive detail contrasting the unenlightened economic policies of the Allies to the increasingly discouraged Germans who desperately wanted to bring order to their lives.

Feldman does a great job helping the reader tune into the magnitude of the hopelessness that the German people felt regarding the impossibility of satisfying unpayable reparations. This is a crisp retelling of a people who did not have, and indeed were prevented from having the economic infrastructure to participate in a functional modern economy.

By the time Feldman is done telling you the story of Germany's incomprehensible inflation, you'll feel an intimacy with this subject. This book is indispensable for understanding the origins of the seething anger, frustration and hostility that the Nazi's were able to so successfully tap into and manipulate.

Finally, I should note that this book is itself something of an ordeal to read; it took me well over two years to read this 4 pound monster. But I have to say I enjoyed every hour I spent with it...