Rating: 
Summary: A Remarkable View of Adolf Hitler
Review: It is easy to write off Adolf Hitler as a monster, or a man of pure evil, but these labels only serve to hide what Hitler truly was- A human being. John Toland's facinating biography is must reading for anyone interested in just how one man could be responsible for such horror. From dispelling myths surrounding the death of Hitler's niece, Geli Raubal, and his involvment in the Reichstag fire, to his ghastly orders to carry out the final solution, we see Hitler the man. And while his motives often times seem unthinkable, Toland nevertheless manages to convey the feelings and emotions that led to Hitler's unrelenting policies of destruction. What truly makes this work remarkable is Toland's presentation of the facts seemingly without bias. The facts are presented as they happened and the reader is left free to come to thier own conclusions. For decades people the world over have tried to understand the madness of Nazi Germany. Toland's biography will no doubt educate and help to give a measure of understanding to anyone who reads it. Truly a great work.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Biography
Review: John Toland does a exemplory job of telling the life and times of Adolf Hitler. This book contains deep, detailed description of all events in his life from the day he was born until the day he committed suicide. This book is not intended for those who want a brief synopsis of Hitler, as many parts of the book are very detailed. For those, however, who are eager to expand their knowledge of early 20th century Germany, they need look no further than this book.
Rating:
Summary: It all started with a twisted dream...
Review: John Toland is a highly regarded,
well-rounded historian who made a serious effort to
write a fairly unbiased book on the public and private
life and times of Hitler. Some of the most revealing
accounts are taken from interviews Toland conducted of
people who knew him and were opening up for the first
time on the subject. Toland acknowledges when
any of his sources, such as personal interviewees, may
be biased.
Prior to this the most thorough and readable work on the subject was RISE & FALL OF THE THIRD REICH.
William Shirer had a very personal style of writing, unlike dry historians such as Trevor-Roper. Shirer was an American radio correspondent who wrote his powerful and highly regarded book soon after the first mountain of captured documents was opened to researchers.
Toland's style is personal yet offers attention to detail, which helped me plow through the heaviness of the subject. He was able to clarify previously sketchy accounts such as who really started the Reichstag fire, with much more information at his disposal than Shirer though to his credit he often refers to Shirer's personal observations of Hitler.
Tolands book reads well, is as definitive a picture of the man as is needed for the average reader. Some of the things I learned from Toland that I had not grasped from Shirer are for example, a better understanding of Hitler's early years in Vienna and Munich, not as miserable as is commonly believed.
During those learning years he was very human, certainly a lot more connected to humanity.
His magnetism "act" took years to master. Early on he
learned a lot from the one or two certain
intellectuals he discussed the topics of the day,
especially music and architecture with.
He had a few close friends - Kubizek and Hanisch, who
looked out for him, that he never forgot, and he
warmly welcomed Kubizek informally to his mountain
retreat and Munich apartment on a few occasions until
the war years. In Mein Kampf he said those early years
included some of his happiest moments.
The unpretentious male and female friends he had then
were quite open and honest with him, he enjoyed their
lack of pretense and let them speak freely.
All too soon however, It became nearly impossible for his genuine friends to gain access to him once he surrounded himself with the motley crew he became identified with.
He maintained his own power by allowing his dogs to snap at each other and thus never gaather enough power to directly challenge him, which is how little he really thought of Goebbels, Goering, Himmler and even crasser
cronies vying for his benediction.
These men would ultimately prove worthless when the chips were down, as they may have been of use getting in power. By and large they were political hacks who had no business running a war, cheering on Hitler's
disintegration into total emotion and intuition.
Before corrosion of his judgement set in Hitler knew better than to listen to either his watchdogs or his own lies. He could be utterly brilliant, as a speaker in public and in private with his almost photographic memory he impressed many who were more professional such as the Generals.
He attracted a lot of different people to him from different walks of life, from ordinary shopkeepers who would give him food in the early days...to the unemployed fellows who argued with him but who respected him for his willingness to pass the hat for anyone without food for the night in the hostels where they stayed.... to international corporations who thought their money could buy him.
Hitler often had to survive on a miniscule budget before investors with Wall Street connections funded the Nazis, but this was not the cause of his anti-Semitic feelings anymore than his failed art career was.
Hitler's pastiche of racial theories were based on the
flimsiest of pamphlets, occult philosophies and
obvious forgeries (such as the Protocols of Zion). His hostel friend who tried to manage him for a share of profit named Hanisch helping market his drawings
with moderate success to beer halls and little curio shops.
He never thought of his postcard and poster art as
important or underrated. He had no interest in collecting them back later, though obviously values went up later, he dismissed them as poor....he had few illusions of artistic grandeur as many might presume.
He composed overtures and played the piano, sure it must have been second-rate Wagner imitation, but he wasn't bereft of options besides the failed art
career. He really wanted to be an architect. Toland excises parts of Mein Kampf that he must have
spent long hours sifting through to get the few paragraphs of meaning and brief flashes of incite and
clarity.
Hitler expressed himself best as a public speaker, but
by 1942 had lost all interest in that. His last speech to have a world-wide broadcast It was also the last important speech he delivered at the Reichstag, broadcast worldwide shortly before America entered the war.
William Shirer who was present claimed that speech was also one of his most popular, at least with the German audience, and that he had his audience in stitches, eating out of the palm of his hand while maintaining mock seriousness.
The real Hitler, especially before his inner demons devoured his hold on reality, was much deeper and more interesting than most people would care to believe. Toland provides more details about his duty in the army tha prrevious biographers. He risked his life many times on the frontlines in the service of his regiment.
He had a dog in the trenches who was very loyal to
him, that he showed much care for. Someone swiped the
dog that he wouldn't sell it to, a pivotal step towards his anger at humanity.
To learn what made him hate Jews and want revenge, you
must read the entire book, every chapter is important
history.
There was more than the charicature that we think of from the dramatized Hollywood movies, light weight cable documentaries, and the Nazis own propaganda. Look for the John Toland book, a vivid and honest portrait of his incredible life.
It was also, by Hitler's own standards, a wasted life as well.
He privately acknowledged in late 1941 that victory was no longer possible - he began to see it in terms of a decade long stalemate - and he later said that the gods of war had switched sides. Anything but accept the blame for his blunders.
He threw away any chance to pull off a decisive pre-winter 1941 victory in Russia all because of a personal whim to veer off schedule and punish Yugoslavia for preferring to remain a soveriegn nation instead of bowing to his offer of joining the Axis satellite. Mussolini had to be rescued from the soup at the same time for foolishly attacking Greece with no word to the Germans about it beforehand.
Hitler quickly over ran Greece and Yugoslavia but it further tied up his forces thereafter, dealing with the resistance skilled in guerrilla warfare.
An even graver blunder then invading Russia in late June, Hitler refused to accept the initally friendly Ukrainians as allies... and as a result gave his armies over a million more enemies to fight.
He pumped the weary Wehrmacht with words alone to suffer through the conditions he steered them into. Somehow his resove managed to provide his soldiers at their bleekest hours with hope.
Hitler's steadfast refusal to throw in the towel well before "midnight" was all that prevented Europe from being completely overrun by the Red Army. Had instead total panic taken hold, with the Germans running right behind the Italians in full scale retreat, the defeat would have been far worse than the Stalingrad disaster and subsequent slower retreat all along the Russian Front.
His fanatic determination to win on his own terms
despite the impossible odds... a tragedy but otherwise
the end would have come much sooner.
If the Nazis and Soviets had negotiated a peace
before Russia gained the full initiative, many lives might have been saved, including brave Germans who would have spawned a worthy generation had they not been erased from history, along with all the others who died. The offer was put on the table by Stalin secretly and was good for many months...until there was no more stopping the Red Army.
It was to be the most ignominious collapse, squandered successes such as North Africa might well have devastated England, but Hitler could only focus
on Russia. He left his ace in the hole - Field Marshal Rommel - a man's man, without enough petrol to fire up the tanks one last time... El Alamein was the end of the line, and never again did Hitler have a chance to reverse his worst blunders, which he barely noticed at the time they occured. The Ardennes counter-offensive was little more than a desperate gamble, a last gasp that could have at best only prolonged the inevitable collapse. He had already blown the slim possibility of stopping the Allies from establishing a beachhead on June 6th, not so much because of the surprise but because he couldn't be woken for the first hours of D-Day. No serious action was taken for several more days either, in spite of his suspicion that Normandy might be the place to keep an eye on, he ignored his own warning and dismissed the seriousness of the subsequent breakout from the coast until several days later when it was by then too late.
Thus the fate of the Fatherland and nearly the world was in the hands of a man who reversed the stunning success that came easily by bluff alone, and all of the hard fought fleeting victories.
The inevitable capitulation he refused to accept in the final days is covered in this book but now there is Toland's focus on the final 100 days, which I hope to read - the "battiness" as Shirer termed it of the political leaders of the 3rd Reich to
deal with reality is amazing.
I doubt anyone else in history ever fell that far,
that fast, from such a lofty perch... to sink so low
after nearly pulling it off, he must have been totally devastated moment to moment, in sheer mental agony the final months.
Once Hitler died, Nazism effectively died with him. Isolated fanatics who continued then or now to go on believing in it have had little if any actual impact on world events.
Toland's book is here for good to solve the riddle by uncovering the enigma wrapped in mystery so we won't get fooled again.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst Biography of Hitler available
Review: John Toland is a journalist who has written a number of rather large books on the war. He more recently has published a book on Pearl Harbor suggesting that Roosevelt may have allowed the Japanese attack to proceed without warning the pacific fleet as a means of bringing the United States into the Second World War. His historical opinions thus are not mainstream. This book was seen in its day as significant as he portrayed a more human Hitler. This was on the basis of doing a large number of interviews with people who knew him when he was younger. The early section of the book thus tries to portray Hitler as a bit of a hippie of his time a poetic critic of society. It shows him going to the Opera, talking to his friends about it and some of the day to day life of his years in Vienna. A number of people speak of him as being an interesting conversationalist and so forth. The book is quite long being close to 900 pages. Only a small portion of the book is devoted to the war some 280 pages of the total. The way that the book is written even makes the amount of information contained within those 280 pages a lot less than you would get in a normal 280 pages of a history. When Toland writes he does not write of a series of events but rather he talks of characters in the drama conversing, their reactions and so on. This means that the amount of facts contained is small a lot of the book is atmospheric padding. A number of critics have suggested that this book is a apologetic for Hitler. To some extent it would seem to be the case. The book fails to discuss the horrors of Germanys occupation policy in the sort of detail that other books do and if a reader was to read only this book he would not have the flavor of what happened. The book mentions the murder of the Jews but it does not discuss the reality of Hitler's war aims and what they involved. That is the destruction of Polish and Russian Society by the murder of its intelligentsia and the reduction of those societies to a countries of serfs. The discussion of the military issues is extremely superficial and there is no in depth discussion of Hitler's military role or his relationship with the German General Staff. The writer focuses little attention on the Eastern Front and expresses little understanding of the history of the campaign. He focuses mainly on the D Day landings and the follow up. No doubt because he has written a book on the battle of the Bulge and would be familiar with it. This is probably the worst biography of Hitler available. It is however easy to read. If you want to read about Hitler here are better books.
Rating: 
Summary: A good narrative of Hitler's life
Review: John Toland's work is ignored by the academics, but he is a great writer and can weave a narrative over 1000 pages. For anyone interested in Hitler there is no better starting point. However, it is only a starting point, Toland has no real ability at telling you why things happened. He cannot get beneath the surface, but that is a small fault. The book needs better footnoting and some of the references are weak, based on interviews that cannot be followed, but overall it is a well-written and compelling account of Hitler. It is certainly the most accessible biography of Hitler available.
Rating: 
Summary: Putting a spin on it.
Review: Massive, masterful, deeply researched, thoroughly documented - and so the accolades flow. I have recently revisted this one after more than 20 years - never quite got it out of my system. Back then it was "the first book that anyone who wants to learn....must read." So I did...it took some time and I was impressed with the extensive notes and references. Of course I had no time to check them out....some other day. That bit at the end of section 3 of "An Unguarded Moment" - where Gerhart Hauptmann supposedly assured Mr. Nicolson "that Germany would 'liberate itself' as Italy had done." Mr. Toland's otherwise extensive notes did not inform me of the source of this assurance. Then I remembered an earlier (1967) best-seller, Mr. Nicolson's "Diaries & Letters". His entry for February 9, 1934 reveals that the German dramatist, novelist and poet answered 'aber nach siebzig jahre bestrebungen' and went on to say "that Germany will probably liberalise itself even as Italian fascimo has liberalised itself." They were all down at Max Beerbohm's place in Portofino at the time, but there is no mention of Mr. Toland being there. Credibility is such an easy thing to lose, and I can't help wondering why it was necessary to make that alteration, putting quite a different spin on it.
Rating:
Summary: Bewilderingly Enlightening
Review: Most people who pick up this book will already have a general knowledge of World War II and its figures. I certainly count myself among that group. But there was something in every book or novel I read and every documentary I saw that always troubled me a bit: in stark contrast to the academic treatment of ALL other political figures, I was never greeted with anything on the subject of Adolf Hitler other than the typical "he was cold-blooded, a megalomaniac, an evil genius, a butcher, a spellbinder . . ." Of course, there are obvious reasons for this, not the least of which that they're all true, but also that there are virtually no intellectual adherents to radical German fascist ideas and the German defeat basically brought the curtain down on the Nazi party. Other tyrants, Stalin and Mao, for example, still (incredibly) have their advocates in the intellectual world, and although these people are largely warped, I believe that their tireless efforts to rehabilitate the cult of personality to which they belong gives us a richer, more interesting and more accurate portrait of the figure in question. Anyway, I've always been a little annoyed that I had never read or seen a sympathetic portrayal of Hitler (aside from that of fanatical propaganda) and have always wondered, what was he REALLY like? Well, John Toland, in his startlingly animated biography, "Adolf Hitler," has succeeded in painting a much more dynamic and accurate portrait of the real man from the Austrian border town. We learn that what really motivated Hitler was not anti-Semitism, but that his anti-Semitism was a by-product of his real inspirations: his absolutely insane LOVE of Germany and his all-consuming HATRED of Bolshevism, represented in large part by Jewish figures in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. We also learn that many popular myths (e.g. his having died a virgin; lacking a testicle; latent homosexuality) were expeditiously damning, but, in fact, categorically false. But the most bewildering and brilliant parts were anecdotes which illustrate counterintuitive facts about Hitler and other Nazis. We learn, for example, that Hitler not only had close Jewish friends during his formative years, but actually went to lengths to shield certain Jews from the horrible effects of Nazism. The Jewish doctor who presided over Hitler's mother was one who was spared the tragic fate wrought upon others with whom he shared ethnicity. We are told of the horribly ironic COMPASSION, twisted HUMANITY, and deep remorse of Heinrich Himmler, who presided over the system of extermination camps. Under Himmler's authority, Nazi guards were actually executed for brutalizing Jewish inmates. I realize that the concept of humane genocide is a little difficult to wrap oneself around, intellectually and emotionally, but it seems to have been one of the ideals characteristic of Nazi ideology. But the presence of humane impulses does nothing to mitigate the actual horror of the holocaust; it does, in fact, create more mind-boggling moral questions. Regardless of the degree to which these "positive" traits really permeated Hitler's world, to have read them, learn that they existed, and to be able to weigh them, is a deeply valuable educational experience for which I thank the author. This was a truly amazing book.
Rating:
Summary: Adolf Hitler
Review: No book written before "Adolf Hitler" ever presented the positive sides of Adolf Hitler. John Toland does an excellent job of removing the normal evil and hate thoughts from the facts. Mr. Toland presents Adolf Hilter in a very fair way and provides a good insight to people to consider. The book leaves no doubt that Adolf Hilter was wrong in his ideas and take over of Germany. This book should be read by any person that truly wants to gain the truth of the years between 1933 and 1945 and of Germany. This book provides the elements that are missing from such books as "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer. It is written without the normal emotions. I recommend reading this in order for the individuals to come to a more fair and unbiased judgement of the German people. People that read this book should also read "Inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer and "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". I beleive that a person can then come to a better understanding of the power and hate which was created in Germany during the Third Reich. Yes, John Toland has accomplished what very few historians ever do. He has written an unbiased book that is not that difficult to read. Like most historical books, the book is not for a person that is wishing to just relax and read for pleasure. Instead, John Toland's "Adolf Hilter" is a book to learn of how history is created and tyrant's can rise to power. Tom
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Summary: A better tradition in historical writing
Review: Surely, unless you happen to be a student or author planning to regurgitate the work of others, the interest in history is not in a parade of dates and names, but in world-shaping events and the people behind them. In this sense Toland's book is in a better tradition.
I have read several books on Hitler. The least useful ones are the high profile date and name books by Bullock and Kershaw and I advise the reader without academic motivation to avoid them as too dry or making shallow interpretations of the man. In fact one can only wonder at the whole business of making books by only reading books, in comparison to eyewitness testimony of Toland interviews.
Nevertheless, despite the books biographical use this is not quite a work of psychological explanation and I strongly recommend George Victor's "Hitler: the search for the origins of his evil", a book I have complete confidence in, to supplement a basic command of Hitler biography like this. My criticism of Toland's book therefore is that it may well be longer than is necessary for your needs of studying men over events, but it has plenty of early Hitler biography and is more reliable than a shorter work of the ironic and entertaining Robert Payne.
Rating:
Summary: John Toland : Hitler
Review: The key to approaching this book is given by the author in his forward : " My book has no thesis, and any conclusions to be found in it were reached only during the writing ". Indeed, this book is certainly no study on Hitler, Nazism, German or European history, in the sense of a penetrating historical analysis or acute psychological understanding of the individuals or the peoples involved. It is nonetheless an extremely informative work on Hitler's life, abounding in details and information gathered by a multitude of sources most of which were close to Hitler and those surrounding him, and presented in a form that is highly readable. From his early childhood years to the last bunker days his life is being narrated by numerous first hand witnesses, adding to the great amount of information provided by the author's research. Even some Hitler boyhood poetry finds it's way through these pages. The book relies heavily on interviews and memoirs of people who were close to Hitler and his inner circle. On the one hand this approach is what gives the reader a sense of familiarity with the details of Hitler's life and habits that no other book can even come close to present. On the other, this fact is something that every cautious reader continuously has to bear in mind - that almost every one of these sources was a strong Hitler devotee, or strong admirer at best and thus these records are not to be considered as models of objectivity and thoroughnes. Toland has chosen not to be critical on the presentation of most of his first hand material, and numerous passages in the book are presented as matter of fact knowledge while in essence they only come from someone's personal testimony. Not all such testimonies are biased on misleading of course - the majority could very well be quite accurate - but with the deep emotions and reservations involved in reminiscencing of those events, this is something to always have in mind and Toland has not made that clear to his readers to the extend that he probably should. Why has the author chosen not to adopt a more critical attitude towards his material ? He states in his forward that " ... I have done my utmost to subdue my own feelings and to write of him as if he had lived a hundred years ago ", and to this he has indeed succeeded completely. There is not the slightest trace of emotion from the part of the author ( in contrast to every other book dealing with the topic ) but at the cost of an almost absolute lack of involvement from his part as well - it is as if his aim was achieved by the presentation of material and not by any accompanying analysis. Many people consider this as their prefered method of historical writing ( presenting facts and leaving the conclusions to the reader ) but many more must have felt disapointment in not geting some deeper input from an expert so deeply involved in the history of that period. Toland has been attacked as being a sympathizer of Hitler's ( from Lukacs in his book on Hitler's biographies ) but this is not suported by his efforts in this book - he clearly states in whose decisions the Final solution had it's origins and the pathological hatred of Hitler for Jews and "lower" races. It seems that some people choose to consider an attempt at objectivity as a covert expression of sympathy towards Hitler, which is of course an unacceptable way of judging historical writings. Many parts of Hitler's life are covered as well - or even better - as one can find in any other Hitler book. The Vienna years, Hitler's WWI front line experience, the Rohm affair, the Czech crisis, the road to war and the July plot are very well presented, while the rise to power and the war years mainly focus on Hitler's actions and doings and not on any external accompanying elements or factors that decisively influenced the course of events ( there is a limit obviously to what one can put in a single book, even if it runs to a thousand pages ). The one thing that is dearly missing is a discussion on Hitler's decisions and actions that led to the recovering of German economy and social conditions after his assumption of power - there is very litle in this book on the one true outstanding achievement of the Hitler regime, as well as in matters that dealt with reforms aiming towards education, the Arts, social life and the establishment of the police state in Germany. There is no definitive book covering Hitler, a person of such high complexity who was also the prime force behind actions whose mere mention produces the highest degree of emotions and pations. However this book definitely has a place within the group of select works that collectively come closer in giving an accurate understanding of the man and his actions.
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