|
|
List Price: $21.95 Amazon.com's Price: $14.93 You Save: $7.02 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: unknown
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 943.086092 EAN: 9780393320350 ISBN: 0393320359 Label: W. W. Norton & Company Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 912 Publication Date: 2000-04 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Studio: W. W. Norton & Company Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Noted for his excellent structural explanation of the Third Reich's political culture in The Hitler Myth, eminent historian Ian Kershaw shifts approach in this innovative biography of the Nazi tyrant. The first of a two-volume study, Hubris is far from a simple rehearsal of "great man" history, impressively exploring the historical forces that transformed a shiftless Austrian daydreamer into a dictator with immense power. In his forthright introduction, Kershaw acknowledges that, as a committed social historian, he did not include biography in his original intellectual plans. However, his "growing preoccupation" with the structures of Nazi domination pushed him toward questions about Hitler's place and considerable authority within that system. He argues that the sources for Hitler's power must be sought not only in the dictator's actions but also (and more importantly) in the social circumstances of a nation that allowed him to overstep all institutional and moral barriers. In a comprehensive treatment of Hitler's life and times up through the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936, Kershaw draws from documents recently made available from Russian archives and benefits from a rigorous source criticism that has discredited many records formerly understood to be reliable. Hubris thus supplants Alan Bullock's classic Hitler: A Study in Tyranny as the definitive account of a man who, with characteristic smugness, indicated that it was a divinely inspired history that made him: "I go with the certainty of a sleep walker along a path laid out for me by Providence." Kershaw's penetrating analysis of how such a certain path could emerge from the dire circumstances of post World War I Germany is the abiding strength of Hubris. --James Highfill Product Description: Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. Hitler here emerges from obscurity to uncontested rule over a disillusioned people desperate to escape from political and economic chaos. Hitler's path to power leads from the anti-Semitism of prewar Vienna through the First World War, the nationalism of Bavaria in the 1920s, and the undermining of German democracy by extremists of the right and left that opens the door for his seizure of the state in 1933. Drawing on previously untapped sources--including Joseph Goebbels's diaries, recently discovered in Moscow--this volume ends with the promulgation of the Nuremberg laws that pushed German Jews to the fringes of society and the march of the German army into the Rhineland, Hitler's first step toward the abyss of war. Horrifying, unstoppably readable, rich with analysis whose implications remain all too relevant as we near the end of Hitler's century, this is "biography of profound importance" (Thomas Childers, Boston Globe). Average Rating:
 Rating:  - SuperbKershaw undertakes three major tasks in the first volume of this outstanding biography. The first is fundamental biographer's responsibility of providing a thorough and well documented account of Hitler's life. The second, and in some ways more demanding task, is to explain how the indolent, poorly educated resident of a Vienna flophouse came to dominate the most powerful nation in Europe. The third is to explain the nature of the Fuehrer's role in the Nazi state. Kershaw accomplishes all these ... Read More Rating:  - Solid but with problemsThis is a solid but unspectacular study of Hitler--hardly the definitive account trumnpeted by its publisher and by some reviewers here. Many reviewers have commented on how many sources--including primary ones-that the author turns to. I had the opposite reaction. To be sure, there is a huge bibliography and many notes (more on these later)but I saw, as someone trained in history, a lot of padding here. Perhaps more surprising is how frequently Kershaw turns to a handful of works to guide him- ... Read More Rating: - Putting Hitler into HistoryHitler is the most difficult person to write a biography of. An obscure person came out of nowhere, and, against impossible odds, totally (and horribly) transformed human history. It is tempting to "explain" Hitler's career as outside the bounds of history, not subject to the usual rules of cause and effect, and instead speak of his "demonic" character, his "evil genius", and so on. Kershaw will have none of this. Evil Hitler certainly was, he notes, but this is no *explanation* of his ... Read More Rating: - Anticipating "what Hitler wanted"This is a long and very detailed book. I knew it was not going to be easy reading when I started it. To my surprise, the first part of the book was quite compelling and not at all difficult to read. At about the halfway point of the book's nearly 600 pages of text, I got bogged down in the details of party politics and it was rough slogging. It took me several weeks to get through that part, but by the time it got to the chapter, "Working Toward the Fuhrer," my attention was once again riveted to ... Read More Rating: - The Ultimate Hitler BioThis is the best portrait of Hitler we're likely ever to get -- thoroughly researched. A lot of new insights here, surprising to discover that Hitler was not 100% the thug we assumed he was. He just had others do most of the dirty work. Very convenient. |
