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Summary: Gargantuanly Great Adolf Hitler Biography
Review: John Toland accomplished one of the all-time masterpieces of biographical scholarship in this massively detailed biography of Adolf Hitler. It describes the political tyranny of an individual who was obsessed with acquiring more land in order to expand what he believed was an overly-dense populated Germany. If one does not purchase land one has to take it by force. Hitler morbidly developed negative prejudicial views toward various sets of people. Irony lies in the fact that although Adolf Hitler hated the Jewish race he was partially a Jew himself.
Never assume any presuppositional historical stance. Expect the unexpected... Although John Toland recounts in this Hitler biography some alleged evidence that Adolf Hitler died at the end of World War II do not assume this is necessarily so. The book entitled "Bariloche Nazi" by Abel Basti may soon be translated into English. This book recounts alternate evidence that Adolf Hitler survived World War II and hid in Bariloche, Argentina. This is a plausible claim. My deceased uncle Boston Fear McKenna ( birth-given name: Sebastian McKenna ) several times told me a true incident when he was in the Army during the conclusion of World War II. My uncle was in Berlin guarding some prisoners in a cell. My uncle could speak the German language fluently. He had a strong interest in studying the German language when he was young because my uncle's maternal grandfather ( my great-grandfather ) Boston Fear and Boston Fear's mother Maria ( Mary ) and sister Elizabeth emigrated from the Saxony area of Germany ( very near to and southwest of Berlin ) and entered the United States in 1850. My uncle told me that he was guarding a German officer in a cell in Berlin who was steaming mad about Adolf Hitler. The German officer said that Hitler always swore he would never betray Germany and that he would fight to his very death to honor Germany. The vehemently mad German officer told my uncle that Adolf Hitler was a traitor and a coward. This German officer told my uncle that he personally saw Adolf Hitler fly out of Berlin at the very conclusion of World War II. It was very probable that Hitler may have flown to a designated area to embark on a submarine to Argentina where he would have been welcomed by dictator Juan Peron. Hitler would in all likelihood have had his physical features altered in order to elude capture. If he was indeed a physically sick man at the end of World War II he may have straggled on healthwise and died in Bariloche, Argentina in 1960 ( as some witnesses have purported ).
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Summary: Hitler Before WWII killed him
Review: "Adolf Hitler is one of the 20th Century's major movers and shakers." His whole drum-beating call to dictatorship was a popular thing, except to the Jews. He managed a fanatical rise to power via skilled lies and a nihilist soldier's sense of power, raw, ruthless. Learn how he loved to paint, yet censored painters he didn't like. Learn how the struggling masses prop up serious murderers now and then.
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Summary: This book is not a respectable piece of literature.
Review: Adolf by John Toland was one of the worst books that I have ever read. The books demeanor wrecks at the brain like a small child's screams. Reading this book was like being hit in the head with a baseball bat. To all the readers out there interested in reading this book, Be warned. Several hours of terrible reading will occupy your evening.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the better HITLER biographies
Review: Although none of the American or British authors has succeeded in giving an un-biased and fully factual account of Hitler's fascinating life, Toland's biography is one of the better ones. It is full of facts and reads very smoothly, almost like a novel. Nevertheless, Werner Maser's (updated German) biography is by far the best. Taking into account, however, the difficulties I've had tracking Maser down in the USA, and considering all your other options, this book is one of the best you are going to get, fellow history lovers. You may have to settle for that. As is the case with ALL works regarding HITLER, this biography contains several "half-truths" and heresay, so don't take everything as FACT. (But then, that advice applies to all printed material.) Still, Toland's work is a good read.
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Summary: Of the ones I've read this is the DEFINITIVE one!
Review: As an amateur student of WWII history I have tried hard to understand more about how the major "players" came to be, thought, and operated before, during, and after (when applicable) the war. John Toland's biography of Hitler is an amazing piece of historical literature!! If you've ever read any of Toland's books (I've read "Battle: The Story of the Bulge" and "The Last 100 Days" - both excellent) you know he can convey a story that makes the words feel alive. He does that here equally as well in a 900 page masterpiece. He starts with a historical background of the Hitler lineage (and possible Jewish blood!) and ends in with various Nazi elites and their capture, deaths, etc after the fall of Berlin and Hitler's suicide. In between we get a marvelous picture of a child Adolf - his closeness to his mother and estrangement from his father; a young man searching for his place - time spent in Vienna flop houses struggling to survive, failing to acheive and finding his place in the political upheaval leading to the Great War; his time at the front - from runner to gassed Iron cross winner; his "Time of Struggle" in forming the NADSP and leading a failed putsch, prison, and release to a country ready to embrace him; to his rise to Chancellor, dictator, statesman, warlord, self-proclaimed Christ, mass murderer; to a broken, pre-aged, sickly man how ultimately takes his own life to avoid paying the butchers bill. Toland weaves a story that is both easy to read and historically engaging. I learned a lot and had fun doing it - just the way I love history!!!Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Of the ones I've read this is the DEFINITIVE one!
Review: As an amateur student of WWII history I have tried hard to understand more about how the major "players" came to be, thought, and operated before, during, and after (when applicable) the war. John Toland's biography of Hitler is an amazing piece of historical literature!! If you've ever read any of Toland's books (I've read "Battle: The Story of the Bulge" and "The Last 100 Days" - both excellent) you know he can convey a story that makes the words feel alive. He does that here equally as well in a 900 page masterpiece. He starts with a historical background of the Hitler lineage (and possible Jewish blood!) and ends in with various Nazi elites and their capture, deaths, etc after the fall of Berlin and Hitler's suicide. In between we get a marvelous picture of a child Adolf - his closeness to his mother and estrangement from his father; a young man searching for his place - time spent in Vienna flop houses struggling to survive, failing to acheive and finding his place in the political upheaval leading to the Great War; his time at the front - from runner to gassed Iron cross winner; his "Time of Struggle" in forming the NADSP and leading a failed putsch, prison, and release to a country ready to embrace him; to his rise to Chancellor, dictator, statesman, warlord, self-proclaimed Christ, mass murderer; to a broken, pre-aged, sickly man how ultimately takes his own life to avoid paying the butchers bill. Toland weaves a story that is both easy to read and historically engaging. I learned a lot and had fun doing it - just the way I love history!!! Highly recommended.
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Summary: The standard on which everything else pales in comparison
Review: At last, the most factual, unbiased, historical work ever written about one of history's most misunderstood men. Few people know about Hitler's bravery and love for his country. Although his rise to power was by questionable means, he turned a bankrupt, desolate nation into one of the greatest countries in the world. If Hitler didn't get greedy and start World War II, he would have gone down in history as one of the greatest leaders ever. From Hitler's birth to the final bunker, Toland shines in his insatiable quest for facts and information and has produced one of the finest historical accounts ever written.
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Summary: One of History's most Reviled, yet Intriguing Leaders
Review: Ever wonder what made Adolf Hitler one of this century's most reviled, yet powerful political leaders? Ever wonder what drove Hitler to his incessant desire to rid the world of Jews and all people of the "non-Aryan" race? Well, if these questions continually vex you, you ought to read John Toland's splendid and provocative biography on Adolf Hitler. It is well-written, and very thorough, as it chronicles Hitler as a young boy growing up in Austria, to the founding of the Nazi party, and culminating with Hitler's ascension and command of the Third Reich. Toland provides probing insight into the forces (both in his personal life and the external political environment in Germany) which drove Hitler to relentless anti-Semitism, and the reasons for his obsession to rid the world of Jews.
He also delves into Hitler's troubled personal life, detailing his close relationship with his mother, and his somewhat ambiguous relationship with his wife, Eva Braun.
But Toland also describes other elements of Hitler's life which were more positive, such as the construction of the autobahnen (auto routes) for military transport, and the founding of the Volkswagen (the People's Car). While these are rather prominent cultural icons in today's society, who would attribute them to a man as hated and reviled as Hitler?
For anyone interested in obtaining a "complete" and "objective" picture of Adolf Hitler as a man who achieved great power and influence in one of the most economically advanced countries in the world, and not just a chronicling of his anti-Semitic actions (which should not be minimized), then I would strongly recommend John Toland's fascinating biography,"Adolf Hitler."
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Summary: Best Biography of Hitler
Review: Finally a Hitler biography which paves the road to understanding the tragedy of World War II. It is beautifully written and easy to read. Full of insight, personal recollections of those who knew him best, and much previously concealed personal information. For anyone interested in the how and why of Nazi Germany and its devastating results, this is an absolute MUST!
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Summary: The Single Best Biography of Hitler Yet Written!
Review: For anyone truly interested in finding and reading a definitive biography of Adolph Hitler, this is the book. This work is at once carefully documented and scholarly yet is also eminently readable and entertaining. Although there is no single volume that adequately explains the mysterious truth of Adolph Hitler the phenomenon, author John Toland delivers a most informative and exhaustively researched manuscript that does help us to understand Adolph Hitler the man. Toland spent several years researching this book with intensive interviews by surviving principals, and had access to a wide range of archival data and previously unpublished data and facts. The result is this magisterial work. This is a book much like Toland's previous efforts in that it concentrates heavily on interviews with a literal torrent of people who had significant contact and knowledge of Hitler, from those who surrounded him in his rise to power, and who followed him into the ash and ruins of the embattled and besieged Third Reich. From his early days in Austria, to his school boy experiences and the discouraging failures of his early adulthood, through the heady but painful days as a volunteer in the front lines during World War I, Toland faithfully traces the rise and growth of this strange young man as he falls prey to a variety of venomous and unfortunate ideas and prejudices that mark him for life, and set the path to the kind of pathological aberrances that characterized his beliefs and behaviors from that point on. Yet Toland makes a painful effort to be non-judgmental, and carefully presents all the facts as he can best determine them. This sometimes makes him err on the side of presenting personal and perhaps subjective opinions of others as fact, and this is typical of the Toland approach. While recognizing the dangers in presenting a lot of information into the record that might be inaccurate, twisted, or fanciful, he also wants us to hear the whole story from all of the participant's viewpoints so we can make our own informed judgment. In this sense Toland has a somewhat archaic belief in the historical reader's critical skills and to be well-enough formed as thinkers that he lets us judge for ourselves based on our interpretation of the 'facts' he presents rather than pre-digesting and coming to his own conclusions for us. The busman's tour he takes through pre-war Germany, observing and describing the collection of rag-tag malcontents accompanying Hitler in his rise to power is quite interesting, as is his casual and matter-of-fact presentation of what is certainly a horrifying plethora of unbelievably provocative, ruthless and despicable acts on the parts of Hitler and the national Socialists. Yet this is also history at its best, unblinking, without comment or sentiment, and in-your-face. Much of what you will read you can find elsewhere, but nowhere else can you find it presented in the style and grace that Toland brings to the printed page. Simply stated, this is an outstanding piece of historical biography, and is also truly the standard against which all other, more recent works on Herr Hitler must be judged. Enjoy!
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