About this title: Based on previously unpublished documents, diaries, notes, photographs, and dramatic interviews with Hitler's colleagues and associates, this is the definitive biography of one of the most despised yet fascinating figures of the 20th century. Toland won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Anchor Books, New York
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 1, 035 page trade paperback is clean and tight with light wear to corners, Middle pages are a little warped at top corner, causing "waviness". Top cover slightly curved. Nice copy. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor
Date Published: 1992-01
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: New. Book is Brand New, Gift condition. Free tracking # included! International buyers are welcome. We ship every business day. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
Edition: First Paperback Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Anchor Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: Very Good. Softcover V/G with minor bump to corner, several pages are creased. Cover is not scuffed. Spine is tight, pages are clean and unmarked. 1st Anchor paperback edition 1st printing. 1035 pgs. includes index. Illustrated. A nice clean copy with only very minor wear. read more
Description: Fine; Collectible. Anchor book Edition, 1991. Excellent condition. Appears unread. No marks/underlines/highlights. Pages are clean and tight. Minor wear on tips. Free deliver confirmation! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 1992-01-01
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780385420532. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Anchor
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: Acceptable. Cover may be damaged. Pages may have writing, but are intact. We ship daily Monday-Friday. Delivery Confirmation included on all domestic orders. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Anchor Books
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: Good. Glossy covers are rubbed and scuffed with mild edge wear. Corner tips a little flared with crease to bottom rear corner. Small split at head of front hinge. Crease and mild roll to spine. Unmarked pages are clean and tight throughout with mild age toning. read more
Edition: Reissue
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780385420532ISBN:0385420536
Description: A national bestseller with more than 370, 000 copies in print, this is "the first book that anyone who wants to learn about Hitler or the war in Europe must read...a marvel of fact. "--"Newsweek. read more
Description: New. First published in 1976. Based on previously unpublished documents, diaries, notes, photographs, and dramatic interviews with Hitler's colleagues and associates. Notes, Index. Illus., 150 b w photos; 3 maps. 1, 035p. 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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