About this title: Adolf Hitler was, without doubt, an influential individual of the 20th century. His actions shaped the modern world, and his fearful legacy still influences the world in which we live. This biography of one of Europe's warlords draws on extensive research, traces his rise to power, his astonishing military bravado, his early successes in Western Europe through to the disastrous defeats in Russia, Africa and France, and his final downfall in April 1946.
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Description: Good. xviii, 1373p., [64]p. of plates: ill., facsims., 1geneal. table, maps, ports.; 18 cm. Originally published: Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1976. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: doubleday, New York
Date Published: 1976
Description: Good. xviii, 1373p., [64]p. of plates: ill., facsims., 1geneal. table, maps, ports.; 18 cm. Originally published: Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1976. read more
Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC)
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday & Co., New York
Date Published: 1976
Description: Good in Fair jacket. Good in Fair jacket 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Binding is secure and pages are intact. Some pages have moisture stains on bottom corner but still readable. One corner lightly bumped and some scuffing along edges and corners. Maps on endpapers. dj has one large chips and several small chips and tears. 584 pages. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 1976
Description: Good. No Jacket. 8vo. {011421} Adolf Hitler Volume II by John Toland. Published by Doubleday in 1976. HARD COVER 8vo History 587-1102pp. {Book Condition} GOOD NO JACKET {Jacket Condition Details} missing. {Book Condition Details} Binding: slightly frayed ends, slightly loosened, Cover: edge wear, minor soiling, tape remnant(s), tear(s) on Spine, rubbing, End Papers: library pocket removed from rear free endpaper. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 1976
Description: Very good. No dust jacket. wear at corners and edges, binding loose, text and binding fine. 587-1102 p. Includes: illustrations, diagrams, maps, index, bibliography. read more
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -BOMC/BCE, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Edition: Bomc/Bce
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday, Garden City
Date Published: 1976
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -Bomc/Bce, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday and Co, New York
Date Published: 1976
Description: A good reading copy only. Dust Jacket may have chips and close tears. Book has tanning or browning due to normal aging process. Book of the Month Club Edition. -, Hard Cover, Good / Good. read more
"this is an excellent book not only about hitler, but about german/european politics between world war 1&2. Amzing how much the eurpo powers let him get away with as he was gaining power. The copy i have is a two volume set, and im at the end of the first volume. Pretty objective view of germany and hitler. It's a lot of information to keep track of but very interesting."
"Reading this book illuminated 20th Century history for me, in a way that is hard to describe. I was born within ten years of Hitler's death and the end of World War II in 1945. When I was a kid, we would clamber on and around tanks planted like trees in our city parks. We had toy guns and played war games. What continues to amaze me, is that America was at the same time, central, yet peripheral, to the outcome, death, carnage and destruction of World War II. Further, in my own view, World War II carried on World War I, which in and of itself, was a world changing war. Finally, since Humanity never seems to change all that much, whether one speaks of "the individual" or addresses "society" it would seem to me, that we would do well to consider carefully, before throwing out religions, gods, or traditions, willy nilly, even and especially when they seem so incomplete, imperfect, or unhelpful, as they do seem today. Hitler was not much of an anomaly, in my own view. I think he represents the modern Nation State better than any totem or flag ever could. Understand?"
"I'm on page 150 and I'm going to have to stop there.
Learning about the developing Hitler was fascinating. His childhood and teenage years. His worthless early 20's that he spent homeless and half-starving, dreaming of art and architecture, but never following through. The war years, which he spent on the front lines, where his life was spared many times by "divine intervention" (that's in quotes not because I don't believe in divine intervention, but because I'm not sure the concept applies to Hitler. If it was some sort of divine intervention, it was the sort that comes from the dark side of the force).
But now that I'm past his developmental years, and he's the politician, it's hard to read more than a few pages at a time. It's so full of hate speech. The author, of course, doesn't espouse it, but when you're telling Hitler's story, you can't get around his hatred for the Jews. And his hatred was so deep. And so toxic.
It is fascinating, however, to learn about Hitler. What he was capable of. What he could make people do. How people fell under his hypnotic spell. How they would do anything for him. That he understood how to make people do what he wanted them to do. ... Hitler exploited people's baser feelings to get what he wanted. And that's low. It's almost sickening, that anyone would feel the need to do that, for any ends.
A historian, Karl Alexander von Muller, observed one of Hitler's speeches and described him well with this short phrase: "Fanatically hysteric romanticism with a brutal will."
For my next biography, I'll choose someone a little less hateful. Maybe Ben Franklin. He's at least not a prince of darkness. It's a definite step up."
"At 1,035 pages, they weren't screwing around when they decided to call this book "the definitive biography." I can pretty much tell you what Hitler ate for breakfast everyday between 1933 and 1945 (for instance, on April 30th, 1945 he ate a bullet).
A few months back, I picked up a biography of Diana Mitford, wife of Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, and close friend of Adolf Hitler's. In its entirety, the book was relatively dull, but I was captivated by Mitford's characterization of Hitler as a brilliant thinker, an enthusiastic leader, and (perhaps most unsettling of all) a compassionate and generous friend.
It occurred to me that I had never considered Hitler from any other perspective than the one offered in grammar school textbooks. It was startling to think of him as a living, breathing human being - one who takes tea and see films with friends. I decided then to read the longest and most comprehensive biography of him that I could get my hands on. Enter John Toland and this behemoth of a book. I wanted to comb through Hitler's experiences and find out what made him into such a horror of a human being. And also, I wanted to know how he managed to persuade an entire nation to turn a blind eye (or worse) to one of the most horrific atrocities perpetrated in recent history.
This book is amazing. There is literally not a single dull page among all 1,035. Though I was unable to identify anything particularly extraordinary in Hitler's early life that would explain his monstrous behavior later on, I came away with a better understanding of the many forces that combined to contribute to this train wreck of a period in German history."
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