- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Greenwood Press (30 Nov 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0275954854
- ISBN-13: 978-0275954857
- Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,509,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Why Hitler?: The Genesis of the Nazi Reich
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Product Description
Review
?[A] short, well-written, thoughtful account of why and how HItler and the Nazis could have come to power in a Western democracy such as Germany...Beginning with the end of World War I, [Mitcham] draws upon established historical research to cover the social, political, military, economic, and personal forces that contributed to Hitler's rise to power. His short account distills a huge literature into a readable study that covers the main themes effectively and understandably...valuable insights for any library collection that includes European history...?-Library Journal
Product Description
How did an Austrian tramp named Adolf Hitler become chancellor of Germany, in a position to launch the most infamous reign of terror experienced in the 20th century? The book explains the Nazi rise to power in a single volume, so the reader can experience what it was like to be there in the Germany of the 1920s and early 1930s, as the Nazis grasped for power and the foundations of democratic Germany crumbled. This book focuses exclusively on the issue of why and how Hitler and the Nazi Party attained power in Germany, a question asked by all thinking Americans in the second half of the 20th century. This book presents new information, dispensing with the hackneyed theory - presented by Hitler in "Mein Kampf" and repeated by historians as illustrious as William Shirer and Allan Bullock - that the heroic young Fuehrer struggled to survive against poverty and incredible odds, working as a day labourer and living in a flop house, hunger his constant companion. In fact, Hitler's father earned a good living, and Hitler's income was higher than that of a junior postal employee, a teacher with less than five years' service, or a court lawyer with one year's salary. Hitler attained power in 1933 as the result of a complex set of factors, some of which were complementary and some of which were mutually exclusive. This book describes and analyses the reasons Hitler became chancellor of Germany, which included the harsh Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I; the Germans' lack of faith in democracy and the reasons behind it; the corruption and political and economic mismanagement which characterised the Weimar Republic, as democratic Germany was called; the hyperinflation of the early 1920s, when the cost of a dollar exploded to 4.2 trillion marks and the German currency lost 99.3% of its value; the Great Depression, during which nearly a quarter of the German work force was unemployed; the political and economic instability of the times, in which the Nazis thrived; and the evil genius of Hitler, the master politician. This book transports the reader back to Germany of the 1920s and 1930s, so he or she can experience what it was like to be there as Hitler and his cronies grasped for power and the foundations of the Weimar Republic crumbled.
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First Sentence
The Second World War had its roots in the first, which began in 1914. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The Second World War had its roots in the first, which began in 1914. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"Reasonably happy and prosperous people", Mitcham notes at the outset, "regardless of nationality, do not elect extremists like Hitler to high office in normal times".
Normal times were but a memory to the hard-pressed Germans, with economic chaos, daily political violence, and an inept government which compounded their misery. Into this political maelstrom strode Hitler, with plausible answers - and hope.
Mitcham's very readable history makes it clear that the advent of Hitlerism was the product of a particular set of circumstances; not so mysterious, and not so unusual as to rule out the possibility that another desperate people might risk dancing with the Devil.
Normal times were but a memory to the hard-pressed Germans, with economic chaos, daily political violence, and an inept government which compounded their misery. Into this political maelstrom strode Hitler, with plausible answers - and hope.
Mitcham's very readable history makes it clear that the advent of Hitlerism was the product of a particular set of circumstances; not so mysterious, and not so unusual as to rule out the possibility that another desperate people might risk dancing with the Devil.
(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Can history repeat itself?
28 May 1998
Format:Hardcover
"Reasonably happy and prosperous people", Mitcham notes at the outset, "regardless of nationality, do not elect extremists like Hitler to high office in normal times".
Normal times were but a memory to the hard-pressed Germans, with economic chaos, daily political violence, and an inept government which compounded their misery. Into this political maelstrom strode Hitler, with plausible answers - and hope.
Mitcham's very readable history makes it clear that the advent of Hitlerism was the product of a particular set of circumstances; not so mysterious, and not so unusual as to rule out the possibility that another desperate people might risk dancing with the Devil.
Normal times were but a memory to the hard-pressed Germans, with economic chaos, daily political violence, and an inept government which compounded their misery. Into this political maelstrom strode Hitler, with plausible answers - and hope.
Mitcham's very readable history makes it clear that the advent of Hitlerism was the product of a particular set of circumstances; not so mysterious, and not so unusual as to rule out the possibility that another desperate people might risk dancing with the Devil.
(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Why Hitler
27 Sep 2000
Format:Hardcover
This book is extremely well researched. Its what you might expect from a professor. It is better documented than Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that is considered the Bible on the subject but is shorter in length. Some of the intricate details however seem dubious, such as, the reference to the Soviet autopsy report on Hitlers body that states that Hitler had only one testicle. I don't doubt that the Soviets wrote such but there has never been DNA proof that his body was ever identified. As a result of the authors research it does seem to refute the notion that Hitler, in his early years, was a bum with relatively no financial resources compared to others during that period. His book is nevertheless spellbinding for those in search of Why Hitler, the high school dropout, rose to lead a nation with 12 Nobel Prise winners in Berlin and the worlds greatest opera, a nation that was elitist by any standard.
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