Rating: 
Summary: really good read
Review: A great involved narrative whose read is as fast and pleasurable as a summer romance. Your not aware of the time going by. Also really neat quotes at the beginning of each chapter.
Rating:
Summary: No other biography comes closer to the subject
Review: As a devoted reader of history, especially of the early 20th century period, I probably have gone through every popular and even arcane book on Hitler and National Socialism. I've read Albert Speer's "Inside the Third Reich," Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reach," Alan Bullock's "Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives," . . . yet, these books, while informative, lack the depth of understanding of the horrible phenomenon of Hitler that Joachim Fest brings to his biography. Maybe because Fest himself is German and is therefore closer to his subject. Yes, the style is dry, and the book is indeed rather biased at times--the preface is titled incredibly "Hitler and Historical Greatness!" Yet, within that preface, you will find insights and observations that are lacking in all other biographies on the Fuehrer. I myself was riveted from page one all the way to the end. So, if you want to really understand Hitler, read this book. If you want to read a lighter biography, read the sections on Hitler in Bullock's "Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives."
Rating:
Summary: No other biography comes closer to the subject
Review: As a devoted reader of history, especially of the early 20th century period, I probably have gone through every popular and even arcane book on Hitler and National Socialism. I've read Albert Speer's "Inside the Third Reich," Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reach," Alan Bullock's "Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives," . . . yet, these books, while informative, lack the depth of understanding of the horrible phenomenon of Hitler that Joachim Fest brings to his biography. Maybe because Fest himself is German and is therefore closer to his subject. Yes, the style is dry, and the book is indeed rather biased at times--the preface is titled incredibly "Hitler and Historical Greatness!" Yet, within that preface, you will find insights and observations that are lacking in all other biographies on the Fuehrer. I myself was riveted from page one all the way to the end. So, if you want to really understand Hitler, read this book. If you want to read a lighter biography, read the sections on Hitler in Bullock's "Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives."
Rating: 
Summary: A Guide for those who wish to understand
Review: Fest succeeds in his purpose of presenting a vivid picture of Adolf Hitler, and thus the socially disheveled times to which this brutalistic nihilist and genocidal dictator dedicated his fiendish talents. Fest's objectivity is the opposite of dehumanizing. The future is assured a balanced portrayal of the dark possibilities of the human soul.
Rating:
Summary: Plodding, however insightful
Review: Fest's brilliant survey of Hitler's rise to absolute power and defeat allows the non-European a certain, if not, unparalled account of Germany on the brink of renewed nationalism through Hitler Vis-a-vis an entirely German journalistic styling and understanding. Fest's quality and quantity of the pre and post Hitler exrerience is an Historians dream, and perhaps an lay person's nightmare. The pages seem to lay heavy on the reader with the seriousness of the situation. Afterall, humor is pointless and Fest replaces this with a staunch and stagnant dryness that only a Hitler student could comprehend or tolerate. All in all, Fest is perhaps the first and best German researcher on Hitler and thus, "Hitler" should be regarded as a staple in any curious or serious investigators die
Rating:
Summary: Still the best bio of Hitler
Review: Historian John Lukacs, who has just come out with "The Hitler of History", an analysis of Hitler's hundred or so important biographers, says Fest's bio is the "best long biography" of Adolph Hitler. Fest fleshes out the young Hitler in fascinating detail. Especially interesting is Fest's account of Hitler's political rise in Weimar Germany from being a member of a minute political party which held its meetings in the back of a beer hall to a dynamic leader of a strong poltical party by the end of the 1920s. Fest is very interpretive and analytical. Typical is his suggestion that Hitler was an artist mutated into a politician. For an American like myself, Fest is weak in explaining how the Nazi's, who never achieved more than fifty percent of an honest vote, was able to dominate the apparatus of government so thoroughly and so fast upon joining a governing coalition in 1933. It has never happened in America even if America has had pols with tyranical personality traits- Wilson, Johnson, Nixon, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and, to a small degree, FDR. If the amateur historian has time for only one biography of Adolph Hitler, this is the one to get.
Rating:
Summary: Still the best bio of Hitler
Review: Historian John Lukacs, who has just come out with "The Hitler of History", an analysis of Hitler's hundred or so important biographers, says Fest's bio is the "best long biography" of Adolph Hitler. Fest fleshes out the young Hitler in fascinating detail. Especially interesting is Fest's account of Hitler's political rise in Weimar Germany from being a member of a minute political party which held its meetings in the back of a beer hall to a dynamic leader of a strong poltical party by the end of the 1920s. Fest is very interpretive and analytical. Typical is his suggestion that Hitler was an artist mutated into a politician. For an American like myself, Fest is weak in explaining how the Nazi's, who never achieved more than fifty percent of an honest vote, was able to dominate the apparatus of government so thoroughly and so fast upon joining a governing coalition in 1933. It has never happened in America even if America has had pols with tyranical personality traits- Wilson, Johnson, Nixon, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and, to a small degree, FDR. If the amateur historian has time for only one biography of Adolph Hitler, this is the one to get.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent bio; just add a little coffee
Review: I read this book for a graduate-level course on the history of Nazi Germany. Fest provides great insight into Hitler's development and personality, in his dry, somber German way. As a reference, it is undeniably one of the best out there on the subject. As a textbook, it requires coffee to finish reading. However, any student is perfectly capable of finishing and garnering great knowledge from this book.
Rating:
Summary: As much a biography of Germany as of Hitler
Review: I'm a big fan of biographies, and this remains (some 10 years after reading it) one of my favorites. There is no dearth of books on Hitler, of course. Fest's accomplishment here is that each section on Hitler is straddled by a section describing other events in the world and Germany, always giving the reader a larger context in which Hitler's activities can be placed. I'm a little dismayed by [people] who suggest that Hitler was merely a sufferer of post-traumatic-stress syndrome after his experience in the trenches of WWI, and that Fest does a disservice (to Hitler?) by leaving this information out. But many people have suffered in the trenches in many wars without later moving on to attempt world domination and genocide. In any case, Fest's biography omits nothing. It is written in a clear, beautiful language, and will leave you with an entirely new understanding of Hitler, Germans and Germany.
Rating: 
Summary: A wealth of information, but dry as dust.
Review: Joachim C. Fest's "Hitler" is a superb account of the strange man that was to become the Chancellor of the Third Reich. There is a slight problem, but an affliction that is fairly commom, there is no excitement found within these pages. The story is told with no attempt at livliness, just stale, dry, but ultimately rewarding if you have the endurance to conquer this 861 page hardback. This book gives you much information, but because of the dry writing style, you do not absorb anywhere near the wealth of information in other, better-written books of this same period. However, don't think this book is a waste, is is not, far from it. It is a rewarding piece of literature, one that will greatly increase your knowledge of Adolf Hitler. However, you should only start this book if you are serious about finishing it. Otherwise you will not get past page 100. Dedication is what it takes, but lurking within the book is a wealth of information, should you wish to uncover it.
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