Rating: 
Summary: Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives
Review: "Hitler and Stalin" places two of history's most destructive figures side by side, telling their stories both individually and (periodically) in comparison. Bullock's technique makes for some mighty interesting reading, with a thorough examination of just how so many people came to their deaths through the whims of two men. Using their political careers as a window into Hitler's and Stalin's personalities, Bullock emerges having drawn a portrait of the similarities and differences between the two men, and how their characters led to the the events that defined their lives. The book also paints the lives of the two men in human and historical terms, making sure to document just how they managed to cause suffering on such a grand scale.
From their humble beginnings, Bullock examines how Hitler and Stalin managed to gain positions of absolute power over their respective countries. Stalin is portrayed as an almost shadowy figure, spending his early career lurking in the background behind the public figure of Lenin, waiting his chance while expertly playing the game of power politics. Hitler, on the other hand, is depicted as a gambler, taking chances he wasn't expected to take, attempting to seize power through calculated boldness and his fiery public persona. With both men, however, Bullock stresses how they succeeded by going just a little farther than others, capitalizing on their enemies' perceptions of what they would and would not do.
Another comparison Bullock draws between Hitler and Stalin lies in the men's complete lack of anything that could appropriately be described as human feeling or comparison. To both, as Bullock says, other people were simply objects to be manipulated or obstacles to be eliminated. To Stalin the objective was getting and keeping power, to Hilter achieving his wild dreams of a German empire, with neither goal leaving any room for consideration of others. It seems to be this one characteristic, above all others, that Bullock sees as motivating the two dictators' action. The starving of the Russian peasants, the Holocaust, the purges, and the massive suffering of the war are all presented by Bullock as just extensions of Hitler's and Stalin's personal missions. He refers at one point to how casually Stalin was able to send to their deaths men with whom he had long worked, as if it required no more effort than the stroke of his pen. By discussing how easily both Hitler and Stalin brought such suffering upon others, Bullock provides a chilling view of just how inhuman these men were.
Bullock tells the tale of these two despicable, yet compelling figures with an expert balance of detatchment and emotion. Although he typically discusses his topic in a very matter-of-fact manner, he will occassionally pause and tell tales of the horrors of collectivization, or the purges, or the Holocaust, bringing an appropriate tone of righteous indignation to these events. Clearly, Bullock's intention in attempting to get inside these men's heads is to expose how truly evil they were, rather than attempt to put down some psychobabble to explain their actions. And one can't help but be moved in his epilogue, where he discusses his experiences in Jerusalem at the Holocaust memorials. If this book has a problem, it's its incredible density, but this is a very minor flaw. 4.5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: A grueling but rewarding read
Review: "Hitler and Stalin" places two of history's most destructive figures side by side, telling their stories both individually and (periodically) in comparison. Bullock's technique makes for some mighty interesting reading, with a thorough examination of just how so many people came to their deaths through the whims of two men. Using their political careers as a window into Hitler's and Stalin's personalities, Bullock emerges having drawn a portrait of the similarities and differences between the two men, and how their characters led to the the events that defined their lives. The book also paints the lives of the two men in human and historical terms, making sure to document just how they managed to cause suffering on such a grand scale.
From their humble beginnings, Bullock examines how Hitler and Stalin managed to gain positions of absolute power over their respective countries. Stalin is portrayed as an almost shadowy figure, spending his early career lurking in the background behind the public figure of Lenin, waiting his chance while expertly playing the game of power politics. Hitler, on the other hand, is depicted as a gambler, taking chances he wasn't expected to take, attempting to seize power through calculated boldness and his fiery public persona. With both men, however, Bullock stresses how they succeeded by going just a little farther than others, capitalizing on their enemies' perceptions of what they would and would not do.
Another comparison Bullock draws between Hitler and Stalin lies in the men's complete lack of anything that could appropriately be described as human feeling or comparison. To both, as Bullock says, other people were simply objects to be manipulated or obstacles to be eliminated. To Stalin the objective was getting and keeping power, to Hilter achieving his wild dreams of a German empire, with neither goal leaving any room for consideration of others. It seems to be this one characteristic, above all others, that Bullock sees as motivating the two dictators' action. The starving of the Russian peasants, the Holocaust, the purges, and the massive suffering of the war are all presented by Bullock as just extensions of Hitler's and Stalin's personal missions. He refers at one point to how casually Stalin was able to send to their deaths men with whom he had long worked, as if it required no more effort than the stroke of his pen. By discussing how easily both Hitler and Stalin brought such suffering upon others, Bullock provides a chilling view of just how inhuman these men were.
Bullock tells the tale of these two despicable, yet compelling figures with an expert balance of detatchment and emotion. Although he typically discusses his topic in a very matter-of-fact manner, he will occassionally pause and tell tales of the horrors of collectivization, or the purges, or the Holocaust, bringing an appropriate tone of righteous indignation to these events. Clearly, Bullock's intention in attempting to get inside these men's heads is to expose how truly evil they were, rather than attempt to put down some psychobabble to explain their actions. And one can't help but be moved in his epilogue, where he discusses his experiences in Jerusalem at the Holocaust memorials. If this book has a problem, it's its incredible density, but this is a very minor flaw. 4.5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: excellent in every way
Review: A powerful insight into two great megalomaniacs, with the terrible lesson for us to never brook tyranny in any form.
Rating:
Summary: A Monumental Biography of Two Legendary Leaders
Review: Alan Bullock has composed one of the most probing studies of human ambition ever written. Its reading is essential to the understanding of European History in the 20th Century. Excellent book!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: Alan Bullock is best known for his earlier pathbreaking biography of Hitler, and it shows. The sections dealing with Hitler are much more thoughtful than the examination of Stalin. Since the parallels drawn between the two are intriguing but not especially illuminating, it might make more sense to read Bullock's Hitler biography separately and another book about Stalin.
Rating:
Summary: Birds of a feather kill whomever.
Review: Alan Bullock mirrors in full detail the lives of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, each against the other, and the result is an interesting, thrilling, creepy, real-life horror story that'll captivate both the serious historian and the lay avid reader.The book has few photographs, but the first two sum up the whole case: infants Hitler and Stalin in their respective schoolclasses, both standing at the same spot (back row, top, center) and with the same bossy attitude. In fact, I wonder why didn't these two revealing photos made it to the cover instead of the unimaginative red and black one, or why the editors didn't include the world-wide-famous David Low cartoon where Hitler and Stalin greet each other in front of Poland's corpse ("the scum of the earth, I believe?"), that summarily says it all (...hey!, just a suggestion!). Anyway, don't miss it!
Rating:
Summary: Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives
Review: Bullock's magisterial dual biography owes very little to social science comparativists but much to Thucydides, Aristotle, and Plutarch. Instead of treating Hitler and Stalin as examples of a general category, the distinguished British historian uses comparison "to illuminate the unique individual character." In his well-crafted and skillfully organized narrative Bullock analyzes the personalities of the dictators as well as the effect of their regimes: Stalin's brutal collectivization and purges, Hitler's despotic order in Germany and later in Europe, the generalship of the two warlords, Hitler's unprecedented genocide, and Stalin's unmerciful treatment of his associates and the Soviet people after the war. In this context, European history is examined not along the traditional Berlin-West axis but set against Berlin-Moscow relations. This assessment of Hitler's and Stalin's regimes comes at a point when the world created by the Nazi dictator's destructiveness and Stalin's legacy has come to an end. In a way, Bullock, the author of the classical biography of Hitler, had another chance to evaluate his subject but now in the broader context of the Nazi leader's principal antagonist and from a new vantage point. He has accomplished his task with accustomed verve, thorough scholarship, and style. A must for all academic libraries.
Rating:
Summary: Get both dictators out of the way at once
Review: Bullock's Parallel Lives is definately entertaining and it moves along quite well. For an introduction to both Hitler and Stalin, it is just the ticket. It covers enough biographical detail for each so that you have a complete picture of them through their entire lives (this is not history that bogs down in specific minutiae of decisions, campaigns and the like). While it is interesting how the two lives are compared, I find the attempts to do so somewhat of a contrived stretch. On a surface level, the objectives and techniques to achieve and maintain political power would make it plausible compare Stalin and FDR -- so of course Stalin and Hitler, both despicable dictators, will have "parallel lives." That aside, the book is worth the trip.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant history and a brilliant morality tale.
Review: For most of the past century, there have been two schools of thought about Hitler and Stalin. One states that Stalin wasn't really so bad, because he fought the Fascists; the other insists that Hitler wasn't really so bad, because he fought the Communists. Alan Bullock leaves both viewpoints in the dustheap of history, where they belong. Both Hitler and Stalin came as close to pure evil as human beings ever get; both stood for the utter repression of the human spirit and the annihilation of anyone who might possibly be suspected of standing in their way. Bullock demonstrates this in exhaustive, but never exhausting, detail. More people should read this book, if only to be cured forever of any temptation to support any form of totalitarianism, any time, anywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and informative, but a little heavy
Review: How is possible to write a book about two of the most horrendous people in history and still keep it readable? Well, Alan Bullock must know the secret because he's managed it here. The early chapters on Stalin are rather heavy going, but once Bullock gets into his stride, it's impossible to put this book down. The research and scholarship are awesomely thorough and the writing, for the most part, shows a lightness of touch that must have been hard to achieve in dealing with such a subject. Perhaps not quite as good as the same author's "Hitler: A Study in Tyranny", but nevertheless an excellent effort. Recommended.
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