Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8780 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-25
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 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

Synopsis
Ian Kershaw's "Hitler" allows us to come closer than ever before to a serious understanding of the man and of the catastrophic sequence of events which allowed a bizarre misfit to climb from a Viennese dosshouse to leadership of one of Europe's most sophisticated countries. With extraordinary skill and vividness, drawing on a huge range of sources, Kershaw recreates the world which first thwarted and then nurtured the young Hitler. As his seemingly pitiful fantasy of being Germany's saviour attracted more and more support, Kershaw brilliantly conveys why so many Germans adored Hitler, connived with him or felt powerless to resist him.

Customer Reviews

A GREAT MANIPULATOR OR A MADMAN..?
So he had trouble keeping up at school and was a bit of a misfit, yet he grew up determined to be a leader - and almost took over the world. Frightening to look into the face of the little boy - and the teenager - knowing what he became - and after all these years the world still reels from his atrocities.
Brilliant book for reference if you don`t want to read the whole thing.

A historical magnus opus.
Looking at some of the earlier reviews I have to wonder if the reviewers have actually understood the book. Kershaw doesn't rehash the 'Hitler as a lucky non-entity' argument. He shows (again and again) how Hitler, through his hard-won dominiation of the Nazi party, coupled with his undoubted genius as an orator, came to power in Germany. The early chapters on the unique social and political conditions within Germany which allowed a demagogue like Hitler to prosper are worth the price of the book alone. Also, the charge that Kershaw is 'woolly' on the root of Hitlers' anti-semitism is deeply flawed. No-one can acurately pin-point what made Hitler so rabidly anti-semetic without resorting to cod-philosophy, which is exactly what real historians (like Kershaw) avoid.

Hitler: Hubris is not only the best book on Hitler I have ever read, it's the best book period.

Intriguing but somewhat disappointing
This book was hailed as the tell-all book of the early years of Hitler but I have go agree with `A Reader' below....it's most definitely not ground-breaking. I gave it 3 stars because it gave me a background to the man and followed how he became the most talked about leader of the 20th century but this book failed to get inside the mind of Hitler in any way and really only told me things that I probably could have picked up from any book. Considering it was hailed as the definitive book about Hitler I expected more.

Hubris looks like a huge book but don't be put off.....the last 300 or so pages are dedicated to references and citations so there is in actual fact less than 600 pages of type.....in a very small font granted. Hubris is most certainly worth a read but I found it quite long-winded and repetitive at times. From the sequence of events it was obvious that Hitler's rise to power was more by fluke than design.....I just didn't think Kershaw needed to repeat how much of a fluke it was over and over again. There are many, many groups and individuals to keep track of in this book so it takes quite a bit of concentration and is more certainly not a book I'd recommend you put down and come back to in a few months time. If you're looking for something light-weight then I'd recommend looking elsewhere.

I have already bought Nemeses and although I was disappointed with Hubris I am looking forward to the next installment.