Tag: Hitler

The Origins of the Second World War by A.J.P. Taylor

The author has done his homework. He marshals volumes of diplomatic correspondence and documentation in support of his argument. But what he ends up with is clearly a reductio ad absurdum. As Tony Judt has pointed out, the conclusion that Hitler was not the primary agent responsible for starting World War II simply defies common …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/02/the-origins-of-the-second-world-war-by-a-j-p-taylor/

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer

This is an outstanding book. Why do journalists invariably write history better than professional historians? Many treatments of Nazi Germany treat their subject with a sterile and bloodless lack of feeling; not this book. Shirer gives the criminals their due. Yet through it all there is the almost supernatural phenomenon of Hitler, this nobody from …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/02/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-by-william-shirer/

The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by Robert Payne

I have read this book many times, and it never fails to fascinate. Hitler’s later career is well known to history; the really interesting part of this book deals with his youth. He appeares to have been an isolated dreamer, alienated from others but not totally devoid of human feeling. For much of his young …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2007/12/30/the-life-and-death-of-adolf-hitler-by-robert-payne/