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Start giftingHitler
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Learn moreWritten by acclaimed biographer A. N. Wilson, Hitler is a short, sharp, gripping account of one of the twentieth century’s most notorious figures. In it, Wilson offers a fresh interpretation of the life of the “ultimate demon-tyrant of history.”
In 1923, thirty-four-year-old Adolf Hitler was languishing in prison after leading an unsuccessful putsch to overthrow the German government. Within a decade he was German chancellor, one of the most powerful men in Europe. How did he do it? Had Hitler been a regular politician, Wilson argues, he would have vanished without trace after his prison experience. He was not, however, a regular politician but rather a conjurer, seeing politics not as the art of the possible but as the art of the impossible.
Among the book’s many insights, Wilson shows how Hitler had an intuitive sense, which amounted to genius, that the spoken word was going to be of more significance than the written word during the twentieth century. In this respect, the Führer is presented as a man ahead of his time, who foreshadowed Hollywood and television stars and postwar politicians.
In a field dense with lengthy tomes, this brief, penetrating portrait provides a compelling introduction to a man whose evil continues to fascinate and appall.
A. N. Wilson is a renowned British journalist and author. He has written several acclaimed biographies, including Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, Jesus, and Paul. He taught for seven years at Oxford before becoming a journalist. He has won numerous awards, including the E. M. Forster Award, the Whitbread Biography Award, and the Somerset Maugham Award. A frequent contributor to the Daily Mail, Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, Spectator, and Observer, he lives in London.
Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936–2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named “Audio Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery.
Reviews
“Wilson…evocatively catalogs the qualities of the young Hitler…Wilson is also effective when he recreates Hitler’s rise to political prominence…[He] makes palpably real for readers the cataclysmic effects of economic collapse. He rightly stresses the centrality of anti-Jewish rhetoric and policy to Hitler’s popular appeal. Wilson is also impressively pointed in his account of the world’s indifference, even deliberate inattention, to the plight of Europe’s Jews. The sections on diplomacy are deft and full of dramatic flair and original judgments.”
“In the best short biography of Adolf Hitler for three decades, A. N. Wilson goes straight to the essentials to explain what made the Führer the phenomenon he was. His conclusions make fascinating, if occasionally uncomfortable, reading even two-thirds of a century after Hitler’s death.”
“Noting how much Hitler depended on his speeches (even Mein Kampf was dictated), Mr. Wilson calls him the ‘most hypnotic artist of post-literacy’…Rather than focus on Hitler’s ideology, the biographer brilliantly singles out his subject’s style of attack.”
“Distilling his own career-long study into a tight, rapid-fire volume that is both portrait and warning, Wilson delivers a statement on Hitler that is insightful.”
“Wilson has written a readable and sometimes fascinating essay.”
“[Wilson is] superb at putting himself in the shoes of others and sketching the mood of a time with a few strokes of the pen.”
“Wilson has opted for brevity and sharp metal, skewering, and brilliantly dissecting Hitler bare in a book you can almost read in a sitting. Wilson cuts to the dark heart of the matter…Wilson’s Hitler is a stimulating triumph of the mind.”
“This well-crafted book cuts to the chase and reveals surprising facts about one of the most reviled figures in history…This is a fascinating book that underscores the fact that even in a modern era enamored with progress and rationality, the darkest elements of society can sometimes fester and become the most seductive.”
“A. N. Wilson is a born biographer and has an eye for the telling detail. In a book written with verve, insight, and imagination, he gives us a fresh look at Hitler. The story he tells is bound to interest and surprise even those who think they already know and understand this most curious historical figure, one who against all odds rose to become leader of Germany and then promptly brought about the greatest catastrophe in European history.”
“Engaging…[The] lesser-known facts, the telling details for which Wilson has a keen eye, are what make this biography stand out…A.N. Wilson’s biography provides a succinct, quick-reading introduction to Hitler that deftly manages the essentials, and, in its truly terrifying accomplishment, begins to bring the human being behind the monstrous Führer back to life.”
“Adding to the enormous literature on Hitler, prolific British biographer and novelist Wilson focuses as much on the man and his relationships as on his actions and times.”
“[A] sharply focused capsule biography…A portrait as disturbing as it is succinct.”
“The award-winning journalist, biographer, and novelist offers a short, often pugnacious biography of the Führer…A useful, even entertaining, life of Hitler.”
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