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Summary: Hitler, Who was He Really?
Review: The other day, I was wondering how dictators are created. Where do these individuals that rise to power come from? And do they have any thread of commonality running through them. The individual I started with was Hitler. I've heard many things about Hitler, but I have never actually read a biography. And when I searched for a book on the topic. I found many about World War II and the results of his policies, but few about the man himself. Then I happened upon Toland's book. Literally was at the bottom of a search I had made. There was very little written about what the book was about. But, because it said nothing, and the book was lengthy, I purchased the book. It has been a fascinating read. It tells you about his entire life, and doesn't cast him in an unfavorable light throughout. In fact, you find out quite a bit of the better parts of his personality, and in some ways is almost sympathetic, although the author clearly says he had to ignore his own feelings while writing this book. It definitely has done a superior job of outlining Hitler's Life, particularly who and what were the driving forces of his life.
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Summary: An excellent biography.
Review: The time that was spent reading this book was worth it. Adolf Hitler was an intriguing man, and this biography from John Toland is full of information about him. While this book was long in length, that didn't discourage me from finishing it. My knowledge of Hitler has vastly increased since I read this book. I learned many things about Hitler that I wasn't aware of beforehand. John Toland did a superb job. I highly recommend this thorough and informative biography.
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Summary: Thorough, Intimate, Engrossing...
Review: This book by John Toland, a fantastic author, gives an incredible insight into the professional and personal life of Adolf Hitler, moving along fluidly through the considerable breadth of this book, which is over 1000 pages.If you have ever wnated to know what formed the earliest opinions of the greatest despot of the 20th century, then I strongly recommend this book. While not giving the definite answer as to his unreserved hatred of all things Jewish, it clearly and concisely explores his upbringing, his struggle as a teen in Vienna, who spent considerable time in what we today call a homeless shelter. It vividly shows his meglomania, the fractured situation after WWI in Germany, that allowed his rise, and how industrialists and politicians, impressed with his oratory, allowed him to lead this new party called the National Socialists, and in part used him to combat the Bolshevists, who as the Communist Party had considerable strength, and were almost as powerful as the Nazis in the 1920's. This book shows how Hitler considered himself a Christlike figure, and does a superb job of constantly showing the innerworkings of the party, how individuals waged personal struggles for power, and how Hitler was a masterful psychologist, always privately pitting one individual against another. Tolands writing is not only informative but very intimate, and this factor makes this 1000 page read not the least bit ponderous, and he gives brief but very detailed descriptions of all those who were close, or aspired to be close, to Hitler during his rise to power and eventual demise. One reviewer has commented that the book spends little time on WWII. Fully one quarter of the book deals with this issue of Hitler, which only lasted for the last six years of his life. I especially liked the reading about the intrigue and subterfuge of this band of gangsters who surrounded Hitler, and also how certain men and women of character, notably career military officers and the clergy, were sucked into the vortex of Hitlers magnetic appeal. When considering the destruction and loss of life that one man alone was personally responsible for, it makes one wonder how it was possible to have happened. This book looks at the very foundation of Hitler, and brilliantly explores the answer to that very question.
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Summary: Indepth study of the life of Hitler
Review: This book dives deep into the life of Adolf Hitler. It explores his family origins and the life that led up to him becoming the ruler of Germany. It is a very informitive and well written book. Mr. Toland takes a very nonpartial stand point throughout the entire book, only delivering the facts, not coloring them. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the real life of hitler, not what mainstream society thinks.
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Summary: Adolf Hitler superstar!
Review: This book gives us fans an insight into the genius of Mr. Hitler. Never before have we been able to delve into the life of the greatest leader ever with such detail. This book illustrates the type of genius that can do this sort of work.
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Summary: Best ever biography of Hitler!
Review: This book has to be one of the longest biographies ever written about a historical figure, but it is greatly the worth the effort expended to read it. John Toland is as good a historian as one will ever experience in the modern era. His books, to a one, are eminently readable. There is no historian who has the ability to make his subjects appear so lifelike, even to those who lived long after the events he writes about. By taking actual quotes and putting them into proper context, Toland marinates a genre long known for its aridity. Hitler the man was as complex a person on the political stage as any that preceded him, or have followed. Toland wades through Hitler's many complexities and seeming contradictions, and sheds light on what drove the Fuhrer's madness and his need to bring Europe (and later the world) to the brink of destruction. Toland offers plausibility to what drove Hitler to vilify and massacre the Jewish race in Europe, his goals of conquest, and his political system...areas in which historians have argued about for generations. We learn many things about Hitler's childhood and early adulthood, things which may shed some light on the future dictator's raison d'etre. From a disappointing childhood to dreams of being an artist and architect in Vienna, Austria, to his service in the German army during World War I, Hitler's dreams of a Germanic empire are mapped out every stage of the way. Toland's treatment of Hitler is fair, which is deeply hard to do, as the leader of Germany's Third Reich has caused much misery and destruction to people all over the world. His detachment makes Hitler appear much more scarier. It is hard to envision a man who would hold so true to his demonic visions over a span of twenty years, as Hitler did with his blueprint for domination of Europe and the Soviet Union. If you love twentieth-century history, particularly that of World War II, this book will satisfy your craving...and then some! I highly recommend all of Toland's books relating to the World War II era, particularly "The Last 100 Days" and "Infamy," which is about the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan on the U.S. on December 7, 1941, and the apparent subsequent cover-up by the government of its foreknowledge of the attack. Toland has also written a couple of fictional books that are not quite as good, but worth a look-see.
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Summary: Full of information
Review: This book is great. It's full of pictures and information on Hitler. It really goes into detail about his life. Recommended
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Summary: Thoroughly informative biography
Review: This has to be the longest book I've ever read, but it was well worth it. I now know that I have a better knowledge about Hitler than I did previous to reading this biography. Reading it took quite some time, but it's packed with information about Hitler that I didn't know about beforehand. One of the best books I've ever read. John Toland did an excellent job.
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Summary: Fascinating Account of One of History's Most Important Men
Review: This is a very fascinating account of the life of one of history's most important, if notorious, figures, Adolf Hitler. Although a lengthy book(over 1,000 pages) it reads like a suspense novel and is rarely if ever dull and plodding. I have always had a "morbid" fascination with Hitler and I thought I knew just about everything about him. But this book revealed to me much that I never knew before. There are many interesting insights into the people around Hitler as well. Also, we learn many lessons about the coddling of dictators by the world's democracies which can be applied to current events in such places as Kosovo. I recommend this book without hesitation.
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Summary: Best account of Hitler's life available
Review: This is surely the best book written about the life of Adolph Hitler. John Toland simply tells the story of Adolph Hitler's rise and fall without an attempt to vilify him (nor to illicit any sympathy). It is utterly amazing to read how this man who was so given over to hatred and such warped ideas about humanity could become the leader of a large nation and then plunge it and the world into a senseless war that took so many lives. This corporal/painter changed the world forever. Could there be a more fascinating story as this? I simply could not put this book down.
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