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Rating: 
Summary: Definitely the best
Review: Compare this superlative piece of research to Ian Kershaw's trash biography of Hitler and you know that it's money well spent.
Writing only from primary, and mostly unpublished sources, Irving presents a picture of Hitler that is devoid of all cheap demonising and caricaturing, so popular with lazy, second rate pseudo historians (Kershaw and Evans come to mind), a man who was duly elected by the Volk, who stood by him till the bitter end (mostly), and who, other than the purge of the SA and its clique of rampant homosexuals, showed a remarkable tolerance of incompetent, scheming politicians and generals (when Stalin would have shot them, they were just cashiered by Hitler).
Once in power, he delegated authority and responsiblity to his underlings, whilst engrossing himself in his multidinous military campaigns as teutonic warlord and modern day crusader.
Irving also proved that the Final Solution was initiated and executed by his overambitious underlings, who, in competition for Hitler's favour, will go to the extreme in interpreting his sometimes vague directives.
(...)
Rating:
Summary: The definitive work in the field
Review: David Irving has written not only the definitive biography of Adolf Hitler, but has written some of the best biographical writing ever put into English. The last 100 pages of Hitler's war are unequalled.
Irving has been roundly trashed by lesser lights, but a careful reading of Irving's work and his critics shows the accusations of inaccuracy are unfounded: Irving's work on Hitler stands head and shoulders above a field of tendentious and even dishonest lesser works. Moreover, Irving's work in the archives has made possible many other works of history and biography in this area, many of which include an obligatory trashing of Irving, then proceed to use his sources, and to accept his (heretofore controversial) conclusions!
The book is strong on what Hitler *did*, but does not stray to tell you what Hitler *thought*. To get an insight into Adolf Hitler's psychological makeup, read Frederic Spotts' 'Adolf Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics'. To find out how Hollywood deliberately distorts history, watch the (terrible) movie 'Max', which is a transparent attempt to undercut Spotts' fine book.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Irving is an extremely impresive historian, who has searched relentlessly through the archives, who has interviewed thousands of eye wittnesses, who has dug and dug. He is the hisotiran's historian. Real history for Dvid Irving means hsitory based on provenenace and wources, not opinions.
Rating: 
Summary: How can anyone still take him seriously?
Review: It's been proved in court that Irving made up many of his sources, manipulated others and--quite simply--lied like a rug to make the "facts" fit his agenda.
I'm stunned that people are still reading his books as anything but fiction.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST
Review: Quite simply the best two books that can be found on their respective topics, they rate along (if not above) works by authors like Mommsen and Trevor-Roper.
Rating:
Summary: Irving and History: Buyer Beware!
Review: See:
"Denying the Holocaust", Deborah Lipstadt (1993)
"Lying about Hitler", Richard J. Evans (2001)
"Evidence for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial", R. J. Van Pelt (2002)David Irving sued Lipstadt in British court for libel. Richard Evans was an expert witness for Lipstadt. Evans' book chronicles the trial and presents overwhelming evidence (under oath and with cross examination) that Irving's entire body of work is riddled with falsehoods and outright fabrications. See the Amazon reviews of Evans' book.
Rating:
Summary: Irving knows more about his subject than anyone else alive !
Review: Stunning color photographs characterize the production quality of the Focal Point edition of David Irving's biography of Adolf Hitler.
Ever since The Viking Press (New York) first published his biography of Adolf Hitler, HITLER'S WAR, in 1977, it has been acknowledged as setting the standard for historians on both sides of the divide between Real History and the more laid-back branches of the academic profession.
For twenty-five years Irving made the German Fuhrer his specialist research subject. Many of Hitler's closest staff talked only to him; they provided exclusive and unique materials and photographs; they opened up their diaries and private papers; they unburdened themselves to him about "the Chief"; they trusted him to write what he found, undistorted, good and bad, worts and all.
Experts at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum conceed that untill HITLER'S WAR was published there had been no real research into the origins of the so called "Holocaust".
As the significance od David Irving's research sank in, so his opponents resorted to unusual means to prevent it from gaining hold.The British publisher, Macmillian Ltd. issued secret instructions to destroy every remaining copy - thousands of books ! The traditional enemies of free speech intimidated librarians, firebombed printers, and smashed the windows of booksellers. The Italian edition never saw the light of day.
When Mr. Irving lectured, his audiences were violently attacked, he found himself arrested, deported, and in 1993, permanently banned from the German government archives "in the interests of the German people".
Now, the book has been published once again in one updated edition together with the pre-war THE WAR PATH; brought up to date with the latest new sources, illustrated by over fifty pages of very rare photographs, most in full color.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This is the best book you could read about WWII from a German perspective. David Irving though controversial remains a great historian of Nazi Germany. His ability to uncover primary sources remains unmatched.
Rating:
Summary: Buyers Beware - Discredited "Historian" Alert
Review: Whenever someone tells me about the "discoveries" and "new facts" in a David Irving book, I have to remind them that Judge Grey found in court that Irving deliberately mistranslates, selectively quotes, and outright alters facts.
This book, along with all of Irving's works, belongs in the fiction section.
Rating:
Summary: Buyer beware - this is not an honest biography
Review: While the other negative reviews of this book have correctly pointed out that Irving is discredited, it's worth noting what lead to his downfall. In writing his biographies of senior Nazis, including this one on Hitler, Irving deliberately ignored or miss-quoted historic documents in an attempt to prove that Hitler had almost no knowledge of the Holocaust and that he tried to stop the mass killings he learned about. During the ill-judged libel trial he launched against Ms Lipstadt it was proven that Irving is linked to Holocaust-denial groups, and this presumably explains his motivation for distorting the historical record in this way.
In short, this book is only worth buying as an example of extremist literature (albeit a sophisticated example). It is not a reliable work of history.
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