how to take over a country with hardly anybody noticing

[Paul]

A fascinating read about how an authoritarian ideology can take over an entire country - emphasising that while this time it happened in Germany (and the author feels a pathological need to blame it on shortcomings in his own people's national psyche), it feels like a blueprint for how it could happen anywhere, and how it crept up on a German people who were either unaware of the implications, or who had closed their eyes and ears and minds as to what it really meant. All many Germans saw were the positive aspects - freedom from want, freedom from poverty and unemployment, and above all freedom from uncertainty and upheaval, after nearly twenty years of chaos and unrest. They were prepared to accept Hitler as the price for stabiltiy. (Why am I thinking of Britain here and the way so many people are latching onto Brexit as a sort of holy grail while newspapers like the Sun and the Express and the Mail are screaming that those who refuse to accept the new order are a bunch of dangerous traitors who should be dealt with - and the scapegoating of immigrants and refugees as somehow responsible for it all...)

one BIG issue with my copy - the Phoenix paperback (2003). Anyone thinking of buying this version should be warned: there is a flaw with the print run that completely omits Chapters 26, 27 and 28. The missing pages begin at p133, partway into Chapter 25, and pages 133 - 163 are completely missing with no reason or explanation whatsoever given. This probably applies to the entire print-run and is really dissappointing - I hope other editions are not blemished like this. Is it worth asking for my money back on this basis?