Product Description

Now at last in a single, abridged volume – the definitive life. When the two volumes of Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis were published, they were immediately greeted around the world as the essential works on perhaps the most malign figure ever to hold power in modern Europe. In the face of considerable demand for such an edition, Kershaw has now created a single volume version. The result is a frightening, fascinating narrative of how a bitter provincial failure from an obscure corner of Austria rose to unparalleled power; how the half-baked, contemptible ideas of a vagrant former art student coalesced into an ideology that for twelve horrific years shaped the fate of millions; and how both in his determination to impose his will militarily and to fend off his many enemies he unleashed a genocidal Armageddon. No one individual can stand in as the scapegoat for the vast social, technological, economic and military forces that shape our societies – but if ever there was one man whose ideas and personality shaped and cowed those forces, as well as embodying them, it was Hitler. This is his story and Kershaw tells it with unique authority, and with moral anger.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141869 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1030 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Is there anything fresh to be said about Hitler? He is an icon, maybe the icon, of the 20th century. He was a failed artist with Wagnerian fantasies, a slob who could not get up in the morning, but he exposed the frailties of modern civilisation in a way that should still make us giddy. How? Was it his doing, or German society's?

Professor Ian Kershaw has produced a work of definitive scholarship that will be the standard for years to come. It was badly needed; since Alan Bullock's 1952 classic Hitler: A Study In Tyranny and Joachim Fest's Hitler (originally published in 1973) there has been much valuable research, all of which Kershaw seems to have read (there are 200 pages of notes). Add to this the media (and, by extension, public) fascination with the nature of evil, and a resurgent interest in right-wing groups, and this book becomes long overdue.

Kershaw deals rigorously with the bones of his subject's life. He has no truck with psychological padding, and calmly demolishes most of the quasi-facts that have sprung up--if in doubt, he allows space within the chronology. His description of the path to the Chancellorship, which was always more messy than messianic, is painful to behold but gripping to follow, and concludes in 1936 with Hitler at the height of his "Hubris".

This is an important study of the character of power, as clearly written as it is intellectually engaging. --David Vincent

Review
'Kershaw's brilliant account is a depressing book to read, not only because of what it tells us about Hitler but also because of what it says about the masses who followed him.' --New York Times

Review
'Hitler has always been terrifying, but Kershaw makes him more intimately repellent.'

Customer Reviews

A Brief Note
Just a brief note: Many of the reviews found on this page are for the book 'Hubris' also by Ian Kershaw which charts the earlier parts of Hitler's life. This book is an unabridged volume containing both 'Hubris' and its follow-up 'Nemesis' and hence covers the whole of Hitler's life. Also, the 'Look Inside' feature offered actually shows you the inside of a totally different book on Hitler. Just thought you should know.

The Icon of the 20th Century
Even though this is the shortened version of Ian Kershaw's biography on Adolf Hitler I think he does a very good job in covering the life of his subject. If you are looking for all the notes and the extensive bibliography then you should read the two-volume biography - Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler 1936 -1945: Nemesis - published in 1998 and 2000 respectively.
If you have previously read the two-volume original you may miss one or the other detail or illustrative example in this "shortened" version but I personally don't think this diminishes this book in any way.

I shall spare you a summary of the subject matter because it would be impossible to do so in any meaningful way. You better read this book yourself. It's all there.

Two things I find incredible about the subject matter though. It is amazing that someone can come out of nowhere and take over a state and then single-mindedly turn the whole world upside down. The other aspect I found amazing is the "working towards the Führer" concept where Hitler's underlings implemented policy according to what they perceived to be the Führer's wishes. This worked perfectly - except in the case of Rudolf Hess who misread the Führer's wishes - and allowed Hitler to pursue his leisure activities.

What I found amusing - although I am not sure if this is the right word to use here - is that Ian Kershaw's publication of the two-volume biography received a rather warm reception in Germany. When William L. Shirer published his "The rise and fall of the Third Reich" back in 1962 he was much criticised in Germany and denounced as a German-hater by German Chancellor Adenauer. It would appear that the Germans have since then come to recognise that the Third Reich by itself was an evil matter and not the people who wrote and write about it.

The (currently) definitive Hitler biography.
As well as being a compellingly readable narrative, Kershaw's analysis is thorough, sophisticated and convincing. To be recommended to anyone with an interest in this period, and vastly superior to its predecessors (Bullock et al) in almost every way.