Overview

A fresh, stimulating look at Adolf Hitler and his dictatorship throughout the study of ten key aspects.   Hitler’s tyranny is still difficult to understand today. In this book, Ralf Georg Reuth examines ten aspects of this catastrophe. Among other things, he asks: Was anti-Semitism more pronounced in Germany than elsewhere? Was Versailles really responsible for Hitler’s rise and why did the Germans follow a racial fanatic like him? How did his war differ from all others before it? The disturbing answers provide an overall picture that shows Hitler was not the consequence of the depths of German history, but the result of chance, deception, and seduction. This thought-provoking new study takes aim at several of the norms of Hitler scholarship from the past forty years. Reuth interrogates and challenges a range of orthodox views on such topics as how mainstream politicians facilitated Hitler’s rise to power, the Führer’s infamous pact with Stalin, and the complicity of ordinary Germans in his genocidal tyranny. Eschewing a conventional chronological approach in favor of a forensic analysis of Hitler’s mainsprings of action both as chancellor and military commander, Reuth portrays Hitler as the apotheosis of what he argues is a specifically German strain of militarism and imperialism, shifting the focus firmly back to the mindset and modus operandi of Hitler himself. The portrait that emerges is one of a murderous fantasist and political opportunist driven by an all-embracing ideology of racial superiority. Reuth’s account courts controversy on a number of points and offers a fascinating counterpoint to much recent scholarship.  

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9781913368623

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Reviews

'An urgent reminder of what happened the last time the world mistook a psychotic warmonger for a rational, power-hungry politician.' James Hawes, author of The Shortest History of Germany; '...provides an intriguing perspective on Hitler from one of Germany's foremost experts on the subject.' Brendan Simms, author of Hitler's American Gamble

Author Information

Ralf Georg Reuth is a German journalist and historian. He has written major biographies of Hitler, Goebbels, and Rommel, along with several books on German history, including Rommel: The End of a Legend. Peter Lewis is a freelance translator and author. His recent translations include Asfa-Wossen Asserate's King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia; Johannes Fried's Charlemagne: A Biography; Dierk Walter's Colonial Violence; and Gunnar Decker's Hesse: The Wanderer and His Shadow.

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