Publishers Weekly
04/05/2021
Historian McDonough (The Gestapo) paints an intricate portrait of Adolf Hitler’s political rise and the Nazification of Germany, culminating in the invasion of Poland in September 1939. After serving a 264-day prison sentence for the failed “Beer Hall Putsch” in 1923, Hitler courted the support of traditional conservatives and sought electoral victories for the Nazi Party. When the Great Depression decimated Germany’s already weakened economy, Hitler’s promises to end unemployment through massive public works projects and weaken “the perceived grip of Jewish capitalists on the nation’s finances” struck a chord with middle-class voters, and he was appointed chancellor in 1933. McDonough presents Hitler as “a master of flexibility and improvisation” in his takeover of the German government, and delves deeply into his power struggles and shifting alliances with business leaders, civil service bureaucrats, and military officials. Dread builds as well-known Nazi figures including Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler enter the picture, and McDonough offers brisk and well-informed accounts of the Reichstag fire, the formation of the Gestapo, compulsory sterilization programs, the building of the first concentration camp in Dachau, the 1938 Munich Agreement, and other familiar touchstones on the road to the Holocaust and WWII. This is an accessible introduction to the rise of the Third Reich. (June)
From the Publisher
"A very well-written and lavishly illustrated history on the rise of Hitler (from 1933 to 1939). With an eye for telling detail, McDonough tells the monstrous but well-known story in an attractive fresh way." —Andrew Roberts, historian and author of the New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War
"An intricate portrait of Adolf Hitler’s political rise and the Nazification of Germany...brisk and well-informed...an accessible introduction to the rise of the Third Reich."
—Publishers Weekly
"An expert [and] insightful chronological account. This one is worthy of study." —Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
2021-04-10
The first volume of a new Hitler biography.
McDonough provides an expert, disheartening account of the first seven years of Hitler’s chancellorship, during which he seemed to have the golden touch. The author reminds readers that in 1932, Germany’s establishment had long viewed Hitler as a lowbrow demagogue, but the Nazis were the largest political party. Certain that they could control him, leading conservatives persuaded the president, Paul von Hindenburg, to appoint Hitler as chancellor. He took office on Jan. 30, 1933, and swiftly proposed the Enabling Act “to end parliamentary democracy now and forever.” This required an election. Many historians pronounce the Nazi’s 44% minority in the March 5 voting a disappointment, but it was a spectacular achievement for a multiparty system, the “highest vote of any party” in any German election since 1919. Passing the act required 66% of the Reichstag, which Hitler accomplished by banning communist deputies and threatening the Centre Party. McDonough offers an insightful chronological account of what followed: brutal persecution and packed concentration camps inside Germany and a pugnacious foreign policy that produced easy, bloodless takeovers of Austria, the Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia before the invasion of Poland persuaded a reluctant Britain and France to declare war. Few historians fail to denounce the refusal to take Hitler seriously until it was almost too late, but McDonough emphasizes that his frenzied public persona disguised a sophisticated diplomat. By the 1930s, almost everyone deplored the Treaty of Versailles and sympathized with his denunciation of Germany’s persecution. After interviews, Western journalists wrote fawning articles; face to face, most politicians found him reasonable. Western leaders refused to believe that Hitler always intended to go to war, not only because they hated the thought of conflict, but also because wars are often pointless. Of course, Hitler was deeply determined and pugnacious, and the catastrophic results of his ambition will likely become apparent in the second volume.
Hitler biographies are not in short supply, but this one is worthy of study.
