Adding to the enormous literature on Hitler, prolific British biographer and novelist Wilson (Dante in Love) focuses as much on the man and his relationships as on his actions and times, for instance, devoting as much attention to the Führer’s friendship with British aristocrat Diana Mitford as to the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. Similarly, Wilson devotes more space to the years 1924–1929, when the Nazi Party was in eclipse, than to the WWII years. Wilson engages in some facile comparative history that lends a measure of ordinariness to Hitler. In one case, he makes the untenable statement that Hitler “in his racial discrimination was simply being normal”—this because the U.S. and Britain were “racist through and through”—and that Hitler “was an embodiment, albeit an exaggerated embodiment, of the beliefs of the average modern person.” Wilson uses Hitler as an excuse for a backhanded slap at the Enlightenment—the godless age that gave birth to the “modern scientific” outlook that, Wilson believes, led in turn to Hitler. Given the monumental impact of Hitler on modern history, this far too short, superficial biography fails to measure up to its subject. (Apr.)
Hitler
Narrated by Ralph Cosham
A. N. WilsonUnabridged — 5 hours, 7 minutes
Hitler
Narrated by Ralph Cosham
A. N. WilsonUnabridged — 5 hours, 7 minutes
Overview
A ruthless dictator who saved his country from economic ruin only to nearly destroy it-and an entire people-in his quest for world domination, Adolf Hitler forever changed the course of history. In this masterful account of Hitler's life, biographer A. N. Wilson pulls back the curtain to reveal the man behind the mythic figure, shedding new light on Hitler's personality, his desires, and his complex relationship with the German people.
While Hitler maintained that his life had been characterized by “struggle” from its very beginnings, Wilson shows that the reality could not have been more different. Hitler grew up in middle-class comfort and, as a young man, lacked ambitions of any sort besides a vaguely bohemian desire to become an artist. And while the Hitlerian mythos holds that he forged his skills as a leader during the First World War, Wilson explains the truth: Hitler spent most of the war as an office boy miles from the front lines and only received his cherished Iron Cross because of his slavishness to the officers he served. The army gave him a sense of purpose and brotherhood, however, which continued to inspire Hitler once the war ended.
Hitler left the army with no skills, contacts, or money-and yet, within fourteen years he would become chancellor of the German nation. Wilson describes the story of Hitler's ascent as one of both opportunism and sheer political shrewdness. He possessed no real understanding of the workings of government but had a prodigious knack for public speaking and found that a large number of Germans, despairing at their country's recent defeat and terrified by the specter of international communism, were willing to listen to the right-wing fantasies that had taken root inside his head. Allying himself with the extremist German Workers' Party, soon renamed the National Socialist Party, Hitler offered many Germans a seductive vision of how the country might raise itself back up and reclaim its rightful place at the center of world politics.
Wilson shows that, although Hitler's bid for power stalled at first, he soon gained traction with a German public starved for hope. Using his skills as a manipulator, Hitler found himself first at the head of the Nazi Party, then at the helm of the German nation. Wilson explores the forces that allowed Hitler to become chancellor of Germany and later to march Germany into total war. He examines Hitler's increasingly virulent anti-Semitism and his decision to implement the Final Solution to exterminate European Jews, and he considers Hitler's tactical successes-and failures-in World War II. Wilson also reveals a great deal about how Hitler's personal life affected his time as Germany's leader, from the lasting pain caused by the death of his mother and the suicide of his young niece to his poor health and addiction to the drugs prescribed by his doctor. As Wilson demonstrates, Hitler the führer was not so different from Hitler the bohemian: lazy, moody, and hypersensitive, he ruled more through intimidation and the mystifying force of his personality than through any managerial skill or informed decision making. His story-and that of Germany-is ultimately a cautionary tale. In a modern era enamored with progress, rationality, and modernity, it is often the darkest and most chaotic elements of society that prove the most seductive.
Editorial Reviews
Tucson Citizen
“This well-crafted book cuts to the chase and reveals surprising facts about one of the most reviled figures in history…. A fascinating book that underscores the fact that even in a modern era enamored with progress and rationality, the darkest elements of society can sometimes fester and become the most seductive.”
Express (London)
“Wilson has opted for brevity and sharp metal, skewering and brilliantly dissecting Hitler bare in a book you can almost read in a sitting. Wilson cuts to the dark heart of the matter…. A stimulating triumph of the mind.”
The American Prospect
“A.N. Wilson's biography provides a succinct, quick-reading introduction to Hitler that deftly manages the essentials, and, in its truly terrifying accomplishment, begins to bring the human being behind the monstrous Führer back to life.”
Mail on Sunday
“[An] entertaining, short biography…. [Wilson] bring[s] a witty, novelist's insight into what made Hitler tick. He seems to understand Hitler's character in a way many historians never could.”
Providence Journal
“Hitler is a slender but insightful volume about the evil instigator of World War II and the murderer of millions.”
Boston Globe
“Distilling his own career-long study into a tight, rapid-fire volume that is both portrait and warning, Wilson delivers a statement on Hitler that is insightful.”
Wall Street Journal
“Provocative…. Noting how much Hitler depended on his speeches (even ‘Mein Kampf' was dictated), Mr. Wilson calls him the ‘most hypnotic artist of post-literacy.' Like today's radio talk-show ‘entertainers,' Hitler knew there was something about the spoken word that could galvanize millions. Rather than focus on Hitler's ideology, the biographer brilliantly singles out his subject's style of attack.”
Booklist
“[A] sharply focused capsule biography…. A portrait as disturbing as it is succinct.”
Kirkus Reviews
“[Wilson] provides a useful, even entertaining, life of Hitler. He revisits the expected events—his rise, his incarceration, Mein Kampf, his vicious henchman, his anti-Semitism, his enormous prewar popularity (not just in Germany), his poor military judgment, his women, his fall and death—and adds some nasty details (he couldn't control his farting; he was lazy and dressed oddly).
Is a new Hitler biography necessary? This short volume's "Select Bibliography"—listing 17 earlier biographies—would suggest not. Even the half-awake history student has absorbed at least the outline of this tale: failed art student and layabout becomes the 20th century's "ultimate horror-tyrant," as Wilson puts it. Wilson (Tolstoy: A Biography), a journalist and prolific biographer and novelist, has erected a bare scaffolding of the much-considered life of this "Demon King of history" in order to offer some incisive judgments. For instance, he argues that Hitler and Goebbels each derived from their Catholic upbringing a "system of control" on which the entire Nazi edifice was modeled. Atop this scaffolding sits a provocative final chapter in which Wilson confronts readers with the notion that Hitler might not have been such an utter anomaly. Hitler, Wilson says, "believed himself to be enlightened and forward-looking, non-smoking, vegetarian, opposed to hunting, in favor of abortion and euthanasia." Sound like anyone you know? VERDICT Wilson does not uncover new facts about Hitler's life. He provides instead a brisk overview capped by a "Final Verdict," the title of his unsettling last chapter—one that may raise discussion among its readers.—Sebastian Stockman, Emerson Coll., Boston, MA
This short history of Adolf Hitler focuses on large and small aspects of the man's life. Most fascinating is the emphasis on the many failures Hitler encountered, which make his eventual success seem even more grotesque. Narrator Ralph Cosham's delivery is as unemotional as the part of the text that recounts Hitler's mediocrity until his rise to power. His relationships with women, particularly very young ones, and with Winifred Wagner (composer Richard Wagner's wife) are disturbing. In addition to Cosham's matchless pronunciation, his delivery captures the author’s tone of irony regarding the ordinariness of parts of Hitler’s life. The author’s belief that the world is still fascinated by this madman makes hearing his life story vital. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169905946 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 03/27/2012 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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