Product Description

Following the enormous success of HITLER: HUBRIS this book triumphantly completes one of the great modern biographies. No figure in twentieth century history more clearly demands a close biographical understanding than Adolf Hitler; and no period is more important than the Second World War. Beginning with Hitler's startling European successes in the aftermath of the Rhinelland occupation and ending nine years later with the suicide in the Berlin bunker, Kershaw allows us as never before to understand the motivation and the impact of this bizarre misfit. He addresses the crucial questions about the unique nature of Nazi radicalism, about the Holocaust and about the poisoned European world that allowed Hitler to operate so effectively.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36680 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1168 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
George VI thought him a "damnable villain" and Neville Chamberlain found him not quite a gentleman, but to the rest of the world Adolf Hitler has come to personify modern evil to such an extent that his biographers have always faced an unenviable task. The two most renowned biographies of Hitler--by Joachim C Fest (Hitler) and by Alan Bullock (Hitler: A Study in Tyranny)--painted a picture of individual tyranny which, in the words of AJP Taylor, left Hitler guilty and every other German innocent. Decades of scholarship on German society under the Nazis now make that verdict unsafe, and so the modern biographer of Hitler must account both for his terrible mindset and his charismatic appeal. In the second and final volume of his mammoth biography of Hitler, covering the climax of Nazi power, the reclamation of German-speaking Europe, and the horrific unfolding of the final solution in Poland and Russia, Ian Kershaw manages to achieve both these tasks. Following on from Hitler: Hubris 1889-1936 the epic Hitler: Nemesis 1936-1945 takes the reader from the adulation and hysteria of Hitler's electoral victory in 1936 to the obsessive and remote "bunker" mentality which enveloped the Fuhrer as Operation Barbarossa (the attack on Russia in 1942) proved the beginning of the end. Chilling yet objective: a definitive work.--Miles Taylor

John P. Fox, The Independent on Sunday
'...Hitler the man jumps out at the reader from virtually every page. [He ] comes across as a cold, friendless, lonely, unfeeling and utterly self-centred creature whose private life was virtually non-existent. Hitler was driven by the goal of total and ruthless success in politics and war. Power, the total domination of the new racially-pure Germany over a racially and ethnically cleansed Europe, and the ideas and practices of war were all that mattered to him - and God help those crossed him.'

Judges' verdict for the Whitbread book award shortlist, The Guardian
'Extraordinary scholarship'

Customer Reviews

Kershaw has produced a gem
Ian Kershaw's follow-up to the peerless 'Hubris' matches and even surpasses the achievements of the first half of this splendid biography. Whereas Hubris addressed Hitler's upbringing and rise to power, Nemesis concerns Hitler's central role during the second world war and with it the final demise and collapse of the third reich. Kershaw's prose is accessible for laymen, whilst remaining packed full of detailed analysis for academics. The author considers both the structuralist and intentional approaches to the third reich, and also whether Nazi policy was determined by economic necessity, or ideological goals.
Nemesis also provides a fabulous insight into the mind and world of the centuries most infamous and destructive figure. It also highlights and ponders the role of those around Hitler and their relationship to him. The author also attempts to understand the reasons for Hitler's murderous determination to implement policies of genocide and dogged continuance of the war even when he knew it was lost.
The two works together represent an excellent study in the workings of the Nazi government and the mind of a dictator. These two works follow the already excellent work on the Nazis and seek to examine how and why these ideologues came to power in a rational and highly educated civlised state. Hopefully works of this quality will help aid us from preventing it from happening again.

An exemplary account of the Nazi war years
Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis, Ian Kershaw's superb account of Hitler's final years, manages to fuse biographical insight into the life and mind of the Dictator, together with a detailed overview of the system (or lack of it) within the Nazi state structure.

We are offered comprehensive analyses of Hitler's pre-war belligerance, the lack of will in British and French government circles to prevent his imperial ambition, his early military triumphs and, ultimately, the final descent into Holocaust, defeat, and death.

Kerhaw's excellent account acts as a constant reminder of how Hitler could have been prevented at every turn but for the absence of committed opposition within the German military establishment. It is a lucid and sober lesson in the victory of bluff and outrageous chance over conventional politics and diplomacy.

The Ultimate Biography On Hitler
Having read both books I found this to be the more engaging but that is no reflection on the quality of the first. Rather I found as I assume most people would Hitler is at his most interesting and puzzling during the period 1936 - 1945. Together they form a superb and comprehensive biography on Hitler but they are also fine as stand alones.

This is not a book about WWII but the events of WWII in relation to Hitler so people expecting a comprehensive summary of the war will be dissapointed. Some of the most significant events are covered in only a few pages i.e. the fall of France and the Ardennes offensive. However this is probably my only criticism and one which I have no right to make given that this is a biography of Hitler and not a history of the war. However it gives an superb 800 page insight into the man and the world he was surrounded by. Kershaws writing style is engaging and the level of research he has undertaken makes this a credible document. I would certainly recommend it as being the ultimate biography of a man who has his fair share of them.

The world can be thankful that Mr Kershaw had no need for a third book on Hitler (1946 - ????) although its absence is a loss to readers of fine historical writing.