|
|
|
Hitler (Penguin Classic Biography)
by Joachim C. Fest (Translator: Richard Wilson) (Translator: Clara Wilson)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (2002-02-07)
ISBN: 0141391030
EAN: 9780141391038
Dewy Decimal #: 943.086092
Paperback: 864 pages
SKU: N5814
Condition: Very Good
|
Editorial Reviews
|
Product Description
A bestseller in its original German edition and subsequently translated into more than a dozen language, Joachim Fest's Hitler is acclaimed as "the best single volume available on the tortuous life and savage reign of Adolf Hitler" (Time). Ranks as a companion volume to Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Albert Speer's memoir Inside the Third Reich.
|
Customer Reviews
|
AN INDICTMENT OF SOCIETY
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-09-26
0 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book because Joachim Fest is a respected historian and the knowledge gaps I have for this part of history as I don't belong to that generation. I fail to understand what people saw and still see in Hitler to be spellbound by his "magnetism". HE IS SIMPLY SOMEONE ANYONE SHOULD RUN A MILE FROM!!! The fact that so many people were and are drawn to him is an indictment of and reflection on the society, then and now.
|
|
the ultimate biography
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-09-26
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Joachim Fest's book "Hitler" is a rare pleasure to read. His words create an atmosphere and a world that we can understand. Fest manages to step into the shoes of Hitler -- we sit and day-dream with that man and build castles in the air. More than that, he manages to bare Hitler's mind and soul to the reader. We learn how and why Hitler acted as he did. His actions that are so vile that we absolutely condemn them, suddenly become clearer. We begin to understand and are warned of the power that one single man can usurp, even though he is penniles, without education and friends. Fest does in no way justify Hitler or his tyranny. On the contrary, he does open our eyes so that we see how actions of such brutality are possible. He makes us understand that they can happen again, but also how they can be avoided. It is an in-depth study of a strongman--strongmen by the way come in all sizes; we encounter them in our daily lives. Since Hitler's demise, half a dozen countries have suffered strongmen as heads of state, and it is vital that we understand and recognize a tyrant before it is too late. None better to learn from than Fest's Hitler, one of the shrewdest and most ruthless strongman of them all.
Roswitha McIntosh, author of "The Madman & His Mistress"
|
|
Excellent update of a good book
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-09-06
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Not a replacement for the Ian Kershaw two-volume biography of Hitler but an excellent book nonetheless. The author sets Hitler's life into context and inserts essays on the meaning of various events. Highly recommended.
|
|
the best
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-06-08
7 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
I'm certainly not an expert on WW2, and I know that there are other books out there (such as Ian Kershaw's) on Hitler that are very good. But several avid readers and history buffs told me that Fest's book was the best, so I read his first. It's true that he does not devote a lot of content to the Holocaust, but he is very graphic and adamant about what happened with that. He is harldy an apologist for Hitler, as one reviewer seems to say. In any case, the fact that he is German and lived through WW2, plus a terrific writer cinched it for me. It's a little dense at times, but if you stay the course, it's well worth it.
|
|
What if Hitler had stopped in 1938?
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-02-24
9 out of 12 customers found this reveiw helpful
Most books written about Hitler concentrate on the Holocaust or World War Two and rightfully so. These are the two most prominent events for which Hitler is known. Fest takes a different perspective on Hitler by writing on his life before he unleashed terror on the world.
Fest is NOT a Hitler apologist though. He clearly states that in his prologue. His thesis does highlight the patriotic Hitler who was successful in bringing back the pride to Germany. Unfortunately he had to throw it away with the war.
It may be counter-factual history, but Fest makes the reader think: What if Hitler had stopped in 1938?
|
|
|
|
|