Hitler: A Biography

by Peter Longerich

Overview

From one of the most prominent biographers of the Nazi period, a new and provocative portrait of the figure behind the century's worst crimes

Acclaimed historian Peter Longerich, author of Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler now turns his attention to Adolf Hitler in this new biography. While many previous portraits have speculated about Hitler's formative years, Longerich focuses on his central role as the driving force of Nazism itself. You cannot separate the man from the monstrous movement he came to embody.

From his ascendance through the party's ranks to his final hours as Führer in April 1945, Longerich shows just how ruthless Hitler was in his path to power. He emphasizes Hitler's political skills as Germany gained prominence on the world's stage. Hitler's rise to, and ultimate hold on, power was more than merely a matter of charisma; rather, it was due to his ability to control the structure he created. His was an image constructed by his regime - an essential piece self-created of propaganda. This comprehensive biography is the culmination of Longerich's life-long pursuit to understand the man behind the century's worst crimes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190056735
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/03/2019
Pages:	1344
Sales rank:	645,273
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Peter Longerich is Professor of Modern German History at Royal Holloway University of London and founder of the College's Holocaust Research Centre. An internationally renowned authority on the Nazis, he has published widely on the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, including Holocaust: The Nazi Murder and Persecution of the Jews (2010), which is widely recognized as the standard account of the Nazi machinery of mass murder and the steps by which it unfolded, and Himmler (2011), described by the London Review of Books as "one of the landmark Nazi biographies."

Table of Contents

Introduction
Prologue: A Nobody

PART I. THE PUBLIC SELF
1. Back in Munich: Politicization
2. Joining the Party
3. Hitler becomes Party Leader
4. The March to the Hitler Putsch
5. The Trial and the Period of the Ban

PART II. CREATING A PUBLIC IMAGE
1. A Fresh Start
2. Hitler as a Public Speaker
3. A New Direction
4. Conquering the Masses
5. Strategies
6. On the Threshold of Power

PART III. ESTABLISHING THE REGIME
1. ‘The Seizure of Power’
2. First Steps in Foreign Policy
3. ‘Führer’ and People
4. Breaking out of the International System
5. Becoming Sole Dictator

PART IV. CONSOLIDATION
1. Domestic Flashpoints
2. Initial Foreign Policy Successes
3. The Road to the Nuremberg Laws
4. A Foreign Policy Coup
5. ‘Ready for War in Four Years’ Time’
6. Conflict with the Churches and Cultural Policy
7. Hitler’s Regime

PART V. SMOKESCREEN
1. Resetting Foreign Policy
2. From the Blomberg–Fritsch Crisis to the ‘Anschluss’
3. The Sudeten Crisis
4. After Munich
5. Into War

PART VI. TRIUMPH
1. The Outbreak of War
2. Resistance
3. War in the West
4. Diplomatic Soundings
5. The Expansion of the War
6. Operation Barbarossa
7. The Radicalization of Jewish Policy
8. The Winter Crisis of 1941/42
9. The Pinnacle of Power
10. Hitler’s Empire

PART VII. DOWNFALL
1. The Turning Point of the War and Radicalization
2. With his Back to the Wall
3. Defeat Looms
4. 20 July 1944
5. Total War
6. The End

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"Longerich's Hitler is essential reading for those trying to understand this statesman and period. The multiple quotations from source materials, at times contradictory and not always synthesized, speak for themselves, and give this text a sense of objectivity, an element indispensable for this kind of work." — A. Robert Lauer, The University of Oklahoma, USA , The European Legacy

"An essential volume for anyone wanting to build up a picture of this atrocious man..." — Simon Heffer, The Daily Telegraph

"... a real biography by a genuine specialist ..." — Richard J Evans, The Guardian

"... a comprehensive and impressive work. I am happy to say that Hitler: A Life is a very good book, fluently translated by Jeremy Noakes and Lesley Sharpe. It is comprehensive on the domestic side of the story, and it draws on the newer literature of the past two decades ... Longerich's work is much more than a synthesis... The result is a fine-grained and generally persuasive account of Hitler's rise to power..." — Brendan Simms, Irish Times

"Here once again [Longerich] mobilises a formidable quantity of archival material and shows us Hitler in his true colours ... [A] detailed biography." — Richard Overy, Literary Review

"Longerich's meticulous account touches on many issues..." — Christopher Clark, London Review of Books

"... demonstrates a mastery of a vast mass of primary and secondary research... that is remarkable even for a German professor ... Longerich is uniquely equipped to explore the enigma of a Fuhrer who manipulated and ultimately ruined not on his lieutenants but an entire continent..." — Daniel Johnson, Standpoint

"Essential reading." — Christopher Bray, The Tablet

"Throughout, the author wears his impeccable scholarship lightly, creating a fresh picture of one of history's most written-about subjects. A Hitler biography unlikely to be surpassed for quite some time."—Kirkus, Starred Review

"Despite its length, Longerich's book is no ornamental 'door stopper;' it is, rather, an 'eye opener' that sets this book apart from those of many other Hitler biographers."
—Reform Judaism

"A chilling but masterful portrait."—Booklist, Starred Review

"Longerich brings distinctive perspectives to the subject, offering compelling insights... A worthwhile and thought-provoking assessment of Hitler's life and times, in the process providing a stark reminder of the consequences of the politics of hate."
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"While Longerich agrees that Hitler was an inept administrator, he convincingly argues that the administrative upheaval was a function, not a glitch, of the system, enabling Hitler to act as arbiter of policy conflicts and to insert himself forcefully into policy decisions... Readers and scholars of 20th-century history will welcome this [biography]."—Library Journal

"The English-language translation [of Hitler], a herculean feat accomplished by Jeremy Noakes and Lesley Sharpe, never flags, always smartly conveying Longerich's peculiarly magisterial readability... This is [one of] the most impressive translated biograph[ies] of the year."—Christian Science Monitor

"A fantastic look at how the führer became the embodiment of the Nazis and the terrors of World War II. For historians or history buffs, this new and comprehensive biography is a must-read."—Bowling Green Daily News

"Hitler is surely the benchmark against which all scholarship on the subject of Nazi Germany, past or future, will be measured."—Jewish Journal

"A fascinating and at times brilliantly written read."—National Review

"Together with Ian Kershaw's two-volume study, [Longerich] provides likely the most consequential history of Hitler in our time."—CHOICE

From the Publisher

09/01/2019

With this latest work, Longerich (modern German history, Royal Holloway Univ. of London; Holocaust: The Nazi Murder and Persecution of the Jews) suggests that while Adolf Hitler's specific personality traits, such as a stunted emotional development that prevented him from feeling empathy, were present before World War I, his virulent anti-Semitism and grandiose sense of destiny resulted from the circumstances of post-1918 Germany. Previous studies of the Nazi state have focused on administrative chaos and an increasingly radicalized base that wished to satisfy the leader. While Longerich agrees that Hitler was an inept administrator, he convincingly argues that the administrative upheaval was a function, not a glitch, of the system, enabling Hitler to act as arbiter of policy conflicts and to insert himself forcefully into policy decisions. Thus, in the final analysis, Nazi Germany and all its policies were Hitler's alone. VERDICT Although the work is occasionally dense owing to the minutiae of German politics, such details are integral to Longerich's assertion of Hitler's centrality to all decisions, such as the Holocaust. While some may question the need for another Hitler biography, readers and scholars of 20th-century history will welcome this one.—Frederic Krome, Univ. of Cincinnati Clermont Coll.

Library Journal

★ 2019-07-14
An expert on Nazi Germany delivers a massive new biography of arguably the most monstrous leader in history.

Longerich (Modern German History/Royal Holloway Univ. of London; Goebbels: A Biography, 2015, etc.) addresses the many biographies that have come before, notably by Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest, which tend to characterize Hitler as a loner and an outsider, a "nonperson." In contrast, Longerich examines Hitler's "autonomous role as an active politician" in shaping the policies of his party. "I argue…that critical turning points in Hitler's policies cannot be seen as the result of external constraints and structural determinants but were the product of decisions he forced through in the face of resistance and significant retarding factors," writes the author. After Hitler's first three nondescript decades, the post-World War I depression gave way to fury and rage at the German defeat, and he found expression as a propagandist for the extreme right-wing German Workers' Party. Emerging a "magnificent failure" from his botched putsch, trial, and imprisonment, he set about creating a public image and political program with Mein Kampf, articulating especially his anti-Semitism and the conquest of "living space" in Eastern Europe. Although he was appointed chancellor in January 1933, his party, writes Longerich, "still had no more than one-third of the electorate behind it," and it took "great political skill" over the next 18 months to transform the government into a Hitler dictatorship. The author deftly shows how Hitler actively "steered the course of events"—e.g., neutralizing the left, removing basic rights, eliminating trade unions, asserting total Nazi control of all clubs and associations, and "sorting out" the role of the two churches. As the momentum of terror grew, so did the inner conflicts and inconsistencies. Yet these did not undermine Hitler's rule; on the contrary, the often cited "chaos of offices," the author notes, "strengthened his personal position" and "allowed him…to enforce his political will directly as an autocratic dictator." Throughout, the author wears his impeccable scholarship lightly, creating a fresh picture of one of history's most written-about subjects.

A Hitler biography unlikely to be surpassed for quite some time.

Kirkus Reviews