Hitler: The Complete Edition

Author: (British) Ian Kershaw
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Ian Kershaw's Hitler will undoubtedly become a classic in the biographical works on Hitler of our time, profoundly altering the perspective of previous biographers on Hitler and his actions and ideology. —Gordon A. Craig, New York Review of Books
Ian Kershaw's Hitler (Volume 2) covers the period from Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria to 1945. Ian Kershaw portrays a Nazi state in such disarray and chaos. As an utterly terrifying leader, by the late 1930s, the years directly leading to World War II, Hitler's pronouncements carried the weight of law, and Germany's bureaucracy was effectively shattered. Starting in 1936, Hitler became deeply convinced of his own achievements, believing himself to be a military and political genius in human history. Unrestrained by reason, he ruthlessly led Germany to destruction. Of interest is that before 1939, as German public support for the Nazi Party began to decline, Hitler still maintained a very high level of prestige. Ian Kershaw's two-volume work surpasses works like Alan Bullock's Hitler in its depth and is likely to become the standard reference on Hitler for a long time to come. Ian Kershaw is one of the leading scholars worldwide studying Hitler and one of the most important biographers of him. His Hitler biography has attracted widespread attention from global media. The Times, Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal all published reviews of the book, calling it a work that has made many previous Hitler biographies obsolete and a groundbreaking study of the Third Reich and Hitler. This monumental work explains the historical fact that Hitler won the "hearts and minds" of the German people, how he acquired and exercised absolute power. Why did the world's most powerful nation submit to such highly personalized rule, which nonetheless won the cheers of millions? People were swept away by the will of one individual, who was leading them inexorably down a path of destruction. How did the citizens of a modern nation become complicit in genocide, and how did they orchestrate unprecedented, nationwide mass murder. The entire continent suffered devastation, and their nation was ultimately overthrown. The author points out that the German people fostered Hitler's arrogant personality. The German people made the greatest gamble in their historical destiny, and the goal of complete domination over the European continent was the driving force that pushed them to take such risks; they must bear the consequences. Looking back at history from today, this gamble itself meant self-destruction. It is a story of a nation and its individuals destroying themselves, as well as a process by which a nation and its representatives designed their own disaster, with the consequences devastating the entire European civilization. This book examines the personal and impersonal factors that shaped this critically important historical period, in order to understand how Hitler was able to expand his power to the point where he could determine the fate of millions; to explore the reasons why Hitler and Nazism caused immense harm to Germany and the world.