University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, Department of History History, Department of Fall 1997 Review of The Twisted Muse: Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich, by Michael Kater. Alan E. Steinweis University of Nebraska - Lincoln,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub Part of the History Commons Steinweis, Alan E., "Review of The Twisted Muse: Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich, by Michael Kater." (1997). Faculty Publications, Department of History. 83. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/historyfacpub/83 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Department of History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in Central European History, Vol. 30, No. 4 (1997), pp. 611-613 Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association. Used by permission. BOOK REVIEWS The Twisted Muse: Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich. By Michael Kater. Oxford University Press. 1997. Pp. xv + 327. $35.00. ISBN 0-19-509620-7. Ths is a serious book about "serious" music. Michael Kater's Twisted Muse is the author's second major contribution in five years to the study of music under National Sociahsm. In hs previous volume, Di&erent Drummers (Oxford, 1992), Kater provided a detaded and nuanced examination of jazz under the Nazis. In his new book, Kater turns his attention to the world of serious (ernste) music, a category encompassing not only classical compositions and performances, but also a good deal of the contemporary music of the 1930s and 1940s.This book bears many of the hallmarks of Kater's earlier work on jazz: resourceful research, copious dbcumentation, straightforward writing, and-a good worlung knowl- edge of music.