Rating: 
Summary: Finally, A Key
Review: Ian Kershaw's masterfully constructed biography has the unique quality of a history writ both large and small. His razor sharp focus on the life and actions of Adolph Hitler, and the view of German society of that time as seen through Hitler's eyes, make this the first work of its kind that has helped demystify the acceptance of his doctine by the German citizenry of the time.Kershaw takes great pains to keep his subject in context. As we read of Hitler's stealthful ambush of German political life, the author keeps us constantly apprised of the acceptance of Hitler's ideology within the populace at large. Likewise, his actions and inaction vis a vis his lackeys is documented with admirable clarity, as are the contents of most of Hitler's speeches and major documents. Hugely authoritative, if one is to read only one biography of Hitler, this is it.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the definitive biography of Hitler
Review: Hubris is well written and impeccably researched. Unlike histories like The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which is predjudiced with the author's biases and strong feelings, Kershaw allows us to view Hitler just as he was: evil, ruthless, angry. This work is also very entertaining; I have trouble putting it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh.
Review: I will never understand why most historians who deem to become authors do not write with the idea that the general public is their audience. If I were a historian myself, I may have found this book interesting. I, however, am an average reader who happens to enjoy the subject of World War II, wanting to learn but also wanting to be entertained. Unless you desperately need facts, don't buy this book. It will not entertain you in the least, it will bore you to tears. The few interesting facts you do gain from it as an average reader are okay, and I did come away with a better sense of how a leadership such as Hitler's was "allowed"" to happen, but I do wish Ian Kershaw would have written the book with a little feeling behind it. Not only that, half of the book, towards the end, is taken up with "notes", so that the reader feels cheated. I will not buy the sequel to this one, and I only recommend it if you have a history exam coming up.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Biographical Treatment of Hitler's & The Times!
Review: This superb book draws the reader closer to understanding this historically enigmatic and often bizarre human being who so changed the world of the 20th century. Although there are a myriad of such books that have appeared in the half-century since Hitler's demise in the dust and rubble of Berlin, this particular effort, which draws from hundreds of secondary sources, many of which have never before been cited, paints an authentic and masterful portrait of Hitler as an individual. This is an absolutely singular historical work; and it will almost certainly displace other, older tomes as the standard text on the early life and rise of Adolph Hitler. Although I must confess that I intensely dislike reading through the early years of most biographies as depicted in so many other treatments of famous individuals, I loved reading this particular book. Kershaw takes a quite different and novel approach, and it is one I enjoyed. Here, by carefully locating and fixing the individual in the context and welter of his times, it yields a much more enlightening approach toward painting a meaningful comprehensive picture of how a neglected and conflicted boy meaningfully became such a terribly flawed and troubled man. Thus, we see the boy grow and change in whatever fashion into a man, tracing the rise of this troubled malcontent from the anonymity of Viennese shelters to a fiery and meteoric rise into politics, culminating in his ascent to rule Germany. Kershaw memorably recreates the social, economic, and political circumstances that bent and twisted Hitler so fatefully for the history of the world. Hitler was, in Kershaw's estimation, a man most representative of his times, reflecting a widespread disaffection with democratic politics, steeped in the virulent anti-Semitism of his Viennese environment, twisted and experienced in the cruelties and absurdities of the First World War, thrust by circumstance and disposition into the sectarian, dyspeptic, and rough & tumble politics of the 1920s, and rising by finding himself the most unlikely of politicians with an unusual ability to orate and emote. It is also interesting to discover that Hitler had an unusually acute (though uneven) intellect, is rumored to have possesed a 'photographic memory', and was said to have an amazing ability to discuss and quote facts and figures and then subsequently casually weave them into a conversation that witnesses found spellbinding and convincing. He was also unquestionably quite charismatic and charming. From the beginning Kershaw argues it is impossible to understand 'why' Hitler without understanding this extremely toxic and strange combination of social, economic, and cultural factors that characterized Germany in the post-war era. Thus, by the time he begins his ineluctable rise to power, we much better understand both 'how' and 'why' such a seemingly unlikely cast of characters as the Nazis succeeded so wildly beyond what one would expect to be possible in a sane and sophisticated modern industrial state. This is fascinating stuff, as is his treatment of the concomitant rise of the slugs, thugs, and under-life accompanying him into the corridors of power and influence. Here is the world's greatest single collection of otherwise underachieving bullies, fanatics, pseudo-intellectuals, and fellow travelers, who clashed into an uneasy coalescence that formed the nucleus of the single greatest force for collective evil seen in the modern world. One's mind reels at the scene at the book's conclusion, as the newly formed Nazi power structure begins applying the progressively strangulating neck-lock on Germany's Jews, religious leaders, and other 'malcontents'. I await the publication of volume two of this effort with eager anticipation. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: a superlative biography of a monster
Review: Let's face it: Brits write better biographies. Here's an 800-page look at 37 amazing years that saw a pathtic little kid become the constituionally-appointed dictator of the most powerful and dangerous country in Europe. Kershaw presents Hitler as a human being, but never humanizes his terrible pathology. It's an amazing story, and frighteningly consistent and logical, from Hitler's days in the trenches in World War I to the eve of his launching World War II. Everyone should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: The rise of Evil
Review: For some reason, before I began this book, I expected it to be boring. I was quite incorrect: this is a riveting work, detailing the rise to power of the Ultimate Evil of the 20th century. Kershaw uses the sources wonderfully well, and his prose never degenerates into scholarly babble, able to be interpreted only by others in academia. He's clear (if not precisely concise), and even a general reader understands what's happening. I eagerly await the next volume!
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Summary: Great Biography, but be warned
Review: If you have an interest in European history, Germany, Hitler, important historical figures in general, etc, you will want to read this. The author is thorough and manages to avoid obvious, simplistic, or trite criticisms of Hitler. I have one criticism and one warning about this book. Critisim: Kershaw does not make a real effort to explain Hitler's hatred for Jews and does not mention Gypsies at all (though comment on Gypsies may come in the second volume). Warning: Kershaw's audience seems to be other Ph.D historians, or at least people highly familiar with inter-war German politics. Since I am neither, I know I missed some of his more subtle points. Still, can't wait for the second volume.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Biography
Review: Through Ian Kershaw's masterful use of all available sources, including primary and secondary source material he has put together a most intriguing study on one of the many men that shaped the 20th century. From a small Austrian village to the promulgation of the Nuremberg laws, this book takes the reader through Hitler's rise to power - one of epic proportions. Kershaw's keen sense of understanding mixed with detailed research has brought forth a well documented book; one that's beautifully laid out and easy to use as a research tool. The chapters, "list of works cited" along with "notes" help the reader to go back into the annals of history to locate the material used in this work. This work outlines his beginnings and uses previously unpublished material to take you into the minds of those closest to him. Hitler was a masterful speaker and used his talents to build up the citizens of Germany giving them what they desired - self worth, obligation and a sense of duty. Germany was crying out to be rescued from a post war depression; so he took the country by the throat and pulled it from the ashes to rise like a majestic phoenix. Adolf Hitler - a little known corporal from World War I, who believed he survived a mustard gas attack by divine intervention, rose to power and unleashed the might of the German army unto the world. This book is a remarkable achievement and my hat is off to Mr Kershaw for all his hard work. This is an excellent biography filled with insight!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, comprehensive biography
Review: Do not go into this book with the idea that you will come out the other side with any blinding insights about Adolph Hitler's psychology. You won't find any of the half-cocked Freudian theories that pollute so many books on the man. What you will find is an astute analysis of the German social mindset that nurtured Nazism and it's notorious political and military leader. This was a wise decision on the author's part as there are already too many biographies out there that either flail away at the impossible task of psychoanalyzing an enigma or simply apply the useless label of "monster" and let it go at that. Kershaw concedes that any information we know about Hitler's personal life is completely anecdotal and untrustworthy -- he was far too socially evasive and emotionally withdrawn to leave any clues about his true self. What we are left with in the end is a portrait of a tragic shell of a man, empty of all but narcissistic rage, and a society that eagerly fed on and regurgitated his message of anger and hate.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative, but Kershaw can do better than this
Review: This is the first biography of Hitler that I've read. Kershaw is a social historian who admits his bias against biography in the preface. His discomfort with biography shows, and this book suffers in comparison with his earlier book on "The 'Hitler Myth,'" a study of Nazi propaganda that is better written, more interesting, and mercifully shorter. Even so, I could hardly read 600-odd pages on Hitler without absorbing much that was new. I learned how, during his unhappy childhood and his aimless wanderings through Vienna, Hitler was constantly exposed to anti-Semitism from the ravings of Schornerer and other extremist xenophobes. I understand better now why Hitler's ranting and raving about exterminating the Jews wasn't taken more seriously even by the unprejudiced; Jew-baiting was such a common rabble-rousing ploy that few realized until too late how serious Hitler was about it. The book shows how it was only after the disastrous Munich Putsch that Hitler began to conceive of himself (as opposed to Ludendorff or a player to be named later) as the one true "Fuehrer." Kershaw also argues that Hitler's own anti-Semitism was not formed in Vienna, as he claimed in Mein Kampf, but was adopted rather opportunistically when he became a political officer after World War I. And I think (though Kershaw himself doesn't say this), that I understand better why Hitler preached divisive, anti-Semitic hatred even though most German Jews were patriotic, and even though it was anti-Marxism rather than anti-Semitism that was his prime selling point to his audiences. Since Hitler's ideology was socialist (even though his actual practice when he attained power contained few elements of socialism), anti-Semitism was the only way he could distinguish himself from the socialists of the more numerous SPD and KPD. By pretending that these parties were mere Jewish puppets, Hitler could offer his brand of socialism as the only form of socialism that would benefit the great majority of Germans, while claiming that his opponents' version worked for the sole benefit of some fantasized international Jewish conspiracy. Even when the Nazis abandoned their strategy of outcompeting the SPD for the urban labor vote in favor of rallying support in the rural middle class, they still couldn't afford to abandon urban laborers completely. The Nazis still needed some of them, if for no other reason than to swell the ranks of the SA. Kershaw also clarifies just how eagerly most of German society cooperated with the Nazis' takeover of total power after Hitler was appointed chancellor. I was shocked to learn that the German military's personal oath of allegiance to Hitler was not the Nazis' idea, but originated with War Minister Blomberg and Reichswehr officer Reichenau, under the insane delusion that this would subordinate Hitler to the armed forces rather than vice versa! Still, this book has many problems. The prose style is convoluted and confusing. Kershaw is disturbingly ready to reject theories out of hand because they don't match his preconceptions, rather than by pointing out any actual evidence against them or any superior evidence in favor of a competing theory. Kershaw's treatment of Hitler's treason trial after the failed putsch is X-Files conspiracy-mongering, positing an agreement by prosecution, tribunal, and an unnamed Bavarian "elite" to go easy on Hitler so Hitler wouldn't reveal the complicity of high Bavarian officials in the putsch. But Kershaw's own evidence suggests that the prosecution presented its case against Hitler vigorously and zealously, that the Bavarian officials Hitler could have implicated weren't really that complicit (their timely warning to the Reichswehr in fact helped crush the putsch), and were in any case promptly sacked after the trial, casting doubt on the theory that the Bavarian government cared about their fate. Hitler's absurdly light sentence is best explained not by any secret, sinister "elite" maneuvers, but by the simple fact that the chief judge was flagrantly, reprehensibly biased in favor of the putschists. In similar style, Kershaw suggests that Hitler's absence in Landsberg proved him indispensable as the "unifying" force on the German nationalist fringe. But his evidence suggests the exact opposite: that Rosenberg tried to unite the banned Nazi party, still mostly a Bavarian party, with north German racist radicals, and Hitler opposed this. And it was through Hitler's influence that the coarse, boorish Streicher was allowed to dominate the party, who so alienated everybody else on the nationalist right that all hope of union was lost. Kershaw also fails to explicitly present any explanation for why Hitler's anti-Marxist message was so popular. He briefly tells the story of the Ratesrepublik, the attempted Marxist revolution in Bavaria, but nowhere suggests that it might explain the Germans' widespread fear of Marxism. Nor is there even the most casual reference to the Russian Revolution and the subsequent murderous behavior of the Cheka, which could hardly have failed to impress the German populace. Presented in this way, the popularity of Hitler's anti-Marxist message is made to appear like a mere prejudice as irrational as anti-Semitism, rather than a well-founded fear that Hitler exploited with grisly and tragic results. In all, Kershaw's biography is better than no biography, but I hope that there are other, better biographies available to help understand the single most disastrous figure of the 20th century.
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