研究纳粹的第一部重要理论著作，也是最经典的研究。连福柯也比较推崇此书。

作者在該書中曾提出一個被後來的研究都證實的觀點，即在納粹時代的德國，國家機器完全解體，集團紛爭，社會混亂到了極點。这和人们通常所认为的观点正好相反，因为人们认为纳粹国家是一个全面管制的威权国家。

The thesis is that National Socialist rule is a function of continuing struggles among power groups united only by their hatred of the labor movement and that Nazi Germany consequently lacks a state in the sense of the modern political formation oriented to order and predictability. Within this framework, Neumann applied many Marxist tools of analysis to characterize the prime social component in the inner struggle. While opinions differed about his theses, his mastery of German sources and rich empirical documentation drew universal applause.

不为人深知的法兰克福学派重要思想家之一。

Franz Leopold Neumann (May 23, 1900 – September 2, 1954) was a German left-liberal political activist and labor lawyer, who became a political scientist in exile and is best-known for his theoretical analyses of National Socialism. Neumann was employed by the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research (in exile at Columbia after some years in Geneva and Paris) in 1936.Neumann, Herbert Marcuse and Otto Kirchheimer worked on numerous projects, including the analysis of political tendencies in Germany. Neumann died in an automobile accident in 1954. His widow, Inge Werner, married his closest friend, Herbert Marcuse.