Michael Hughes obtained his Doctorate in Economic and Social History from the University of Glasgow in 2016. His life changed when he fully lost his eyesight in 1998. It gave him the opportunity, however, to change direction away from Quality Engineering and to devote more time to collecting military artefacts. He subsequently combined his academic ability and interest in the social life and function of military and political symbols to complete his doctorate and conducted further research resulting in this book. He describes himself as a reformed collector and is doing his best to resist accumulating things.

1 Introduction / 2 From Weimar to the Third Reich / 3 The Materiality of the People's Community / 4 Pre-war Awards: More Than Just Eagles and Swastikas / 5 Medals for Babies: The 'Honour Cross of the German Mother' (Ehrenkreuz der Deutschen Mutter) / 6 Wartime Awards: All Ironed Out / 7 Objects as Texts and Trade / 8 Trash or Treasure: How do you solve a problem like Nazi memorabilia? / 9 Collecting Nazi Memorabilia in the 21st Centuryand Beyond