I asked this a few times on the Thursday Reading Recommendations threads and it didn't get much attention. I'd really like a recommendation from this sub because of the high standard of accuracy that is upheld here.
I know there are quite a lot of works that focus on how it led to Nazi Germany, but I'd like a book that focuses more on the period itself; I'd especially like to know more about the earlier parts of it: from the 1918 revolution through the "Golden Twenties".
Thanks a lot!
I think I can answer this question. The two big names are Detlev Peukert’s The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity and Eric Weitz’s Weimar Republic. Unfortunately, the point you make about the primacy of the Nazi era is true. Neither of the books I just suggested will escape that entirely: Peukert’s book was written explicitly to make an argument about the relationship between the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany; Weitz’s book aims to challenge the “doomed Weimar” narrative, more implicitly engaging with the Nazi period.
Aside from these, there are many many specialist histories on the 1920s. For your specific interest in the period right after the war, try Robert Gerwarth’s 1918. It’s mostly a political history, but it’s very good.