This first book of a two-volume account of Hitler's domination of the German people brings readers closer than ever before to the character of the bizarre misfit. Photos.
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This first book of a two-volume account of Hitler's domination of the German people brings readers closer than ever before to the character of the bizarre misfit. Photos.
Read Less
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Size: 6x1x9; 1st edition, 1st printing. Light wear to covers. Text clean and unmarked. The binding is tight and square. Light wear to the dust jacket. Your satisfaction is guaranteed!
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Seller's Description:
Fine in Fine jacket. FIRST AMREICAN EDITION. Hardcover. Bound in quarter black paper with lighter black paper boards. Cover is plain with gilt lettering on the spine. Contains list of illustrations, acknowledgements, glossary of abbreviations, notes, and list of works cited. Indexed. Many unpaginated black and white photograph inserts. [xxx] 845 pp. Dustjacket is illustrated with a black and white portrait of Hitler. CONDITION: This copy is unmarked, pages are crisp and clean. Dustjacket has light rubbing. A deep look into the circumstances that lead to Adolph Hitler. Full refund if not satisfied.
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Seller's Description:
Good. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ] [ Torn pages: YES ] [ Edition: Reprint ] Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub Date: 1/1/1999 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 845.
In his preface to 'Hitler, 1889-1936': Hubris Kershaw warns us against eschewing analysis (a swipe at John Toland?) but he also warns us against skewed or partial analysis. He recognizes that subjectivity is a slippery slope. Hitler was not, he assures us, only a pliant stooge of German right wing nationalists, nor of the Warrior class, nor of German Industrialists. Nor was he only a manifestation of world Capitalism (a la classic Soviet History), nor only the inevitable result of the Versailles Treaty (though that helped make him). Nor did he triumph by shear force of will. He was not stupid, nor was he a genius. All of these are one-note analyses posited heretofore. Hitler?s Third Reich was the result of a confluence of a number of specific events and historical/cultural trends that could not have happened in a different time and/or place. Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris gathers those trends and weaves them together for us. Kershaw gives just enough of what happened and focuses on how and why.
As gratifying as Kershaw?s book is historically, I found it stylistically wanting. Kershaw is a great historian, but not a great writer. I often found myself getting lost in sentences that were interminable strings of clauses separated by commas, with sets of dashes tossed in on rare occasions failing to relieve the tedium. Apparently Kershaw doesn?t know that the parentheses may be found at the upper right of his keyboard, and that it?s OK to employ a semicolon now and then. Oh, and sometimes two or even three sentences can express a thought more clearly than one gigantic one. This is a book sorely in need of an editor with a goodly handful of red pencils.
However, stylistic concerns are not enough to detract from the value of 'Hitler' as history. If you are going to read only one biography of Hitler (and more than one, at least in a short period, would be enormously depressing) then 'Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris' is it. It is probably the definitive Hitler biography to date.
HazeGray
Mar 6, 2008
Incredible Detail
This book is exquisitely researched, and a real pleasure for history aficionados. I have read all the major books about Adolf Hitler, and none painted the picture of his early life that this one did. It is not a page-turner, but it certainly needs to be read by anyone who even strives to be a student of the history of the 20th century.
