Using history as a backdrop, author Craig Gottlieb offers a study of Gau Ehrenzeichen, or District Honor Badges. Although useful both as the first-ever collector’s manual devoted exclusively to the subject, this study can also help historians understand the formative years of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) between 1923 and 1939. Drawing on his knowledge not only of the artifacts themselves, but on a keen understanding of the period, Gottlieb offers a unique view into the pre-war history of Nazi Germany. Using never-before-published photos and drawing from private archives of original specimens of every badge and corresponding award document, Gottlieb answers two important questions: what is a Gau Ehrenzeichen, and why are they relevant to understanding Hitler’s rise to power?