Drawing upon prodigious research, much of it in German corporate and government archives, Peter Hayes argues that the IG Farben chemicals combine, the largest corporation in Nazi Germany, proved consistently unable to influence national policy outside the narrow sphere of the firm's expertise. Indeed, as Hayes shows, the most infamous aspects of Nazi policy - the Third Reich's armaments and autarky drives during the 1930s, Germany's advance toward war, the pillaging of Europe, the exploitation of slave and conscript labor, and the persecution of the Jews - occurred despite IG Farben's advocacy of alternative courses of action. Nonetheless, Farben grew rich under the Nazi regime and was directly involved in some of its greatest crimes.