Good introduction for anyone new to Nazi/Hitler studies. - Rated 
The original edition of this book was published in 1952,just seven years after Hitler's suicide in the Berlin bunker.What is astonishing is that it has stood the test of time and is still one of the best Hitler biographies around.
It is not a history of Nazi Germany,and so some topics that you may have expected to be covered in depth(the Holocaust,for example)are skimmed over in favour of the life and times of Hitler.
I would recommend,for new readers,reading the middle chapter first.This is an attempt to sum up his personality-the man,rather than the history maker.It's judgements are so well put("Pity and mercy he regarded as humanitarian claptrap")that it will set you up for the chronological chapters that precede and follow it.
Even though there are now veritable libraries of works about both Hitler and the Nazi era published since this(only four years after the Nuremberg trials,remember),Bullock's book holds up remarkably well,except for it's smoewhat slender bibliography.
if you want to dig deeper,try the 1970s biography by Joachim Fest,or the 1990s two-volume Ian Kershaw effort.
Dense and Dark study of Hitler - Rated 
As a book focused on Hitler, rather than the war, the holocaust, or military strategies/battles, this is a brilliant work. And people should be warned, this is not a World War II book, although much of the detail covered is interesting and informative. The books greatness is the simplicity of objective: looking at Hitler.
I would say that Bullock's divisions within the book are excellent, and I found these particularly useful as a starter. I enjoyed picking up the 'story' from the Czech debacle and read the book from there. I then went back to the post war years, and recently started at the start. I found this method quite useful.
This is a brilliant balance between general interest and specialist. I have found the book to be fair, considered and, at points, even sympathetic. And it is this fairness that makes Hitler so compelling, as you come to see his ugliness. You certainly grow to appreciate his genius and leadership pre-war, and then the disintegration during the war; his vacillating and tempers, his insights and determination.
I commend this book as it seeks not to tub-thump and get all jingoistic; it is a detailed, portrayal of one man and his influence on others, and history.
excellent objective analysis - Rated
enthralling read: author makes use of a great deal of contemporary material to explore the opportunities and conditions leading to the rise of a mono-maniac. Intersting object lessons for historians of the effects of punitive awards for reparations (after first world war) and the ease with which 'private armies' can be fostered given the right conditions. An absolute must, for general readers and specialists alike.
Surely the definitive work on this subject - Rated
World War 2 was such a horrific experience, bringing with it an unprecedented series of atrocities, that it is hard to imagine that a book about one of its main perpetrators could be a good read. Yet this really excellent work manages it. The depth of its detail and research is breathtaking, yet the writing presents the material in a highly readable manner. Thoroughly recommended.
A superbly researched and highly readable biography. - Rated
Bullock's achievement is one of demystiftying Hitler. One by one, the onion-skin layers of Hitler mythology are stripped away. Simple demonization makes way for an intelligent character study of a massively complex character, and simplistic Neo-Nazi whitewash is debunked. Hitler was a political genius who skillfully outwitted the powers of Europe, and on the other hand, a moral and intellectual cretin who needlessly drove his country and most of Europe to destruction through his ugly egotism and strident nationalism. In The Holocaust Hitler prepetrated a crime unparalleled in history, and yet, until the end continued to believe that he had been wronged and that history would vindicate him. Bullock brings out these contradictions in a detailed and intelligent biography, which takes us from the beer-halls of Munich, to a shallow grave at the Fuhrerbunker in exquisite detail. A meisterwerk.
|
