Description
Book SynopsisSelected as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, Times Literary Supplement and The Times
Despite his status as the most despised political figure in history, there have only been four serious biographies of Hitler since the 1930s. Even more surprisingly, his biographers have been more interested in his rise to power and his methods of leadership than in Hitler the person: some have even declared that the Führer had no private life.
Yet to render Hitler as a political animal with no personality to speak of, as a man of limited intelligence and poor social skills, fails to explain the spell that he cast not only on those close to him but on the German people as a whole. In the first volume of this monumental biography, Volker Ullrich sets out to correct our perception of the Führer. While charting in detail Hitler's life from his childhood to the eve of the Second World War against the politics of the times, Ullrich unveils the man behind the p
Trade Review
Everyone concerned about democracy should read this book.
-- Richard J. Evans * The Nation *
A superb biography of the Führer’s pre-war years… It is a tribute to Ullrich’s absorbing biography that one contemplates its second volume with a shudder. -- Miranda Seymour * Daily Telegraph *
[A] fascinating Shakespearean parable about how the confluence of circumstances, chance, a ruthless individual and the wilful blindness of others can transform a country. -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
A substantial addition to the Fuhrer canon. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times, Book of the Year *
Where Ullrich adds greatly to our understanding is by making the mercurial, changeable and…profoundly unknowable Hitler believable… This is a major achievement…
Impressive and revealing biography. -- Nicholas Stargardt * Literary Review *
