The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler

by James Cross Giblin

Overview

* “The most complete and successful biography of the Führer available for this audience.”—SLJ, starred review

 Many people believe Hitler was the personification of evil. In this Sibert Medal–winning biography, James Cross Giblin penetrates this façade and presents a picture of a complex person—at once a brilliant, influential politician and a deeply disturbed man. Giblin explores the forces that shaped the man as well as the social conditions that furthered his rapid rise to power. Powerful archival images provide a haunting visual accompaniment to this clear and compelling account of a life that left an ineradicable mark on our world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544455917
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/16/2015
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	895,578
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

James Cross Giblin (1933-2016) was the author of more than twenty critically acclaimed books for young people. His book The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler received the Robert F. Sibert Award for Informational Books.

Table of Contents

1.	The Most Dangerous Dictator	1
2.	Young Adolf	4
3.	Homeless in Vienna	12
4.	Corporal Hitler	18
5.	The Power of Speech	24
6.	Launching a Revolution	29
7.	Arrested	39
8.	Mein Kampf	45
9.	A Death in the Family	57
10.	The Path to Power	63
11.	One Nation, One Party, One Fuhrer	73
12.	Triumph of the Will	83
13.	"Heil, Mein Fuhrer!"	91
14.	On the March	101
15.	Triumphant Homecoming	108
16.	"Peace in Our Time"	115
17.	Before the Storm	126
18.	One Conquest After Another	136
19.	War on Two Fronts	146
20.	The "Final Solution"	157
21.	Stalingrad--and After	170
22.	A Bomb Under the Table	182
23.	The Last Offensive	193
24.	Down to the Bunker	202
25.	Hitler Lives	214
	Glossary of German Words and Terms	225
	Source Notes and Bibliography	227
	Index	235

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The most complete and successful biography of the Fuhrer available for this audience. It takes courage to write fairly about the person who perpetuated almost certainly the most suffering and misery in the 20th century, and Giblin accepts this mantle and bears it nobly.
School Library Journal, Starred

Opening with an overview of dictators throught history, Giblin, always a graceful, unemotional stylist, traces the life and actions of the leader of "the thousand year Reich" in a straightforward and lucid manner. . . .In a time when people, young and old, are unaware or have forgotten that people like Hitler, his nation, his followers, and his high command existed, Giblin's carefully researched account is more important than ever. It is so readable that it should hold younger readers and educate older ones who may need their brains refilled with this history. An essential purchase.
Kirkus Reviews with Pointers

This insightful historical overview describes the social, political and economic conditions that proved ripe for the dictator's ascent.
Publishers Weekly, Starred

Hitler’s cold eyes stare out from the cover photograph of this excellent biography. . . .Giblin moves beyond political events and delves into the twisted realms of Hitler’s strangely contradictory personality.

Booklist, ALA, Starred Review

"The author succeed[s] admirably in producing a book that explains Hitler to young people. Compact, readable, and well documented." Riverbank Review

Editorial Reviews

The most complete and successful biography of the Fuhrer available for this audience. It takes courage to write fairly about the person who perpetuated almost certainly the most suffering and misery in the 20th century, and Giblin accepts this mantle and bears it nobly.
School Library Journal, Starred

Opening with an overview of dictators throught history, Giblin, always a graceful, unemotional stylist, traces the life and actions of the leader of "the thousand year Reich" in a straightforward and lucid manner. . . .In a time when people, young and old, are unaware or have forgotten that people like Hitler, his nation, his followers, and his high command existed, Giblin's carefully researched account is more important than ever. It is so readable that it should hold younger readers and educate older ones who may need their brains refilled with this history. An essential purchase.
Kirkus Reviews with Pointers

This insightful historical overview describes the social, political and economic conditions that proved ripe for the dictator's ascent.
Publishers Weekly, Starred

Hitler’s cold eyes stare out from the cover photograph of this excellent biography. . . .Giblin moves beyond political events and delves into the twisted realms of Hitler’s strangely contradictory personality.

Booklist, ALA, Starred Review

"The author succeed[s] admirably in producing a book that explains Hitler to young people. Compact, readable, and well documented." Riverbank Review —

From the Publisher

In this accomplished biography, Giblin (Charles Lindbergh) presents the rise and fall of "the most dangerous and ultimately the most destructive twentieth-century dictator." The author begins with Hitler's birth and modest upbringing in Austria and failed artistic aspirations, and follows his years as a WWI soldier and his budding abilities as a political orator (an army superior noted, chillingly, "Herr Hitler is a born people's speaker.... He clearly compels the attention of his listeners, and makes them think his way"). The compelling narrative then traces Hitler's gradual accumulation of power, including his early political associations with the Nazi Party, a failed 1923 coup attempt and subsequent imprisonment (where he penned his plans for political domination and the annihilation of European Jews in Mein Kampf). This insightful historical overview describes the social, political and economic conditions that proved ripe for the dictator's ascent, as it outlines Hitler's life and career, including his iron grip on his adopted "Fatherland" and his commitment to Lebensraum (or additional "living space" for Germany) which triggered the series of invasions that pushed the world into another war. Abundant primary source quotes and well-researched photographs enliven this comprehensive volume. A closing chapter describes the rise of neo-Nazism both in the U.S. and abroad. Giblin offers an absorbing portrait of an enigmatic leader who loved dogs and opera but could also order the extermination of millions of innocent people. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

The most complete and successful biography of the F hrer available for this audience. It takes courage to write fairly about the person who perpetuated almost certainly the most suffering and misery in the 20th century, and Giblin accepts this mantle and bears it nobly. This "extraordinary villain who promised to restore his nation's honor and dignity" began life very much as an average person. His subsequent transformation into brilliant politician and then cruel war leader and finally humiliated vanquished tyrant is presented seamlessly and realistically. The first chapter establishes the ground rules for the rest of the book as it sets out to explore how such "deadly ventures" happened. As the book continues, the historical perspective is superb. For example, while Giblin portrays Hitler's persecution of certain groups as severe and reprehensible, he also mentions the fact that during this time many nations and institutions, including American universities, had specific anti-Semitic policies. The last chapter, entitled "Hitler Lives," shows how some people to this day are attempting to perpetuate the man's legacy and beliefs. This book maintains focus on the life of its subject-including his pets and love life-and does not, as many others do, stray into areas belonging to books specifically on the Holocaust or World War II. Good-quality photos, political cartoons, and reproductions augment the text. A biography in the truest sense, this is a terrifying must for all libraries.-Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, IL Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Opening with an overview of dictators through history, Giblin (The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin, 2000, etc.), always a graceful, unemotional stylist, traces the life and actions of the leader of "the thousand year Reich" in a straightforward and lucid manner. His narrative explores three basic questions: "What sort of man could plan and carry out such horrendous schemes? How was he able to win support for his deadly ventures? And why did no one try to stop him until it was almost too late?" Citing Adolf's middle-class childhood, he looks beyond the standard labels of barbarian, savage, or mad man. (These qualities might provide excuse for his political acts: crimes against humanity, genocide, and a world destroyed.) Completing the history of the rise and fall of Germany, the Nazis, Hitler, and his cronies, Giblin follows with information about modern Nazi followers: skinheads, white power groups, Aryan nation members, and the like. The study cries out for much better maps; places like the Rhineland, Sudentenland, the Ruhr, to name a few, are mentioned in the text but not set in their geography-necessary in a time when young people seem to have little knowledge of the globe and its places and peoples. The rest of the illustrations are well chosen in this exemplary twin biography of a man and modern history. In a time when people, young and old, are unaware or have forgotten that people like Hitler, his nation of followers, and his high command existed, Giblin's carefully researched account is more important than ever. It is so readable that it should hold younger readers and educate older ones who may need their brains refilled with the facts of history. An essential purchase.

Kirkus Reviews