Rating: 
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.
Rating:
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!
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: One of the best and most thourough biographies ever written
Review: Written in 1976 when many of Hitler's key contemporaries and friends were still alive, Toland carefully and thouroughly utilizes first person oral histories and a vast myriad of sources to craft one of the most compelling biographies ever written. Toland works effortlessly through his prose to paint a human face on the individual who left perhaps the greatest imprint on the 20th Century. Hitler not only perfectly defined and personified Evil in both the modern and contemporary mind, but also changed the way politics are conducted. His use of multimedia propaganda lives with us still The brilliance of Toland's writing is that while he remains completely objective and true to his subject, he lets history and the facts speak for themselves.For anyone interested in studying the second world war or the 20th century, I truly reccomend beginning with this book. Five stars out of five.
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: 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: A Must Read
Review: To understand the Second World War one must begin with Adolf Hitler and to understand Hitler one must begin with John Toland's classic Adolf Hitler. This is the definitive biography of Adolf Hitler that all others should be based.
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Summary: Best biograpy on Hitler, bar none
Review: I had the opportunity of corresponding and meeting John Toland when I was a teenager and he was a remarkable man and a great writer. This is by far the best and most readable biography ever written on Hitler. Toland eschews, thankfully, the ridiculous psycho-babble which ruins many other major Hitler biographies. Toland interviewed over 300 people close to Hitler: Tradul Junge, his secretary, Max Wunsche and Richard Schultze, his adjutants, Eva Braun's best friend and many others. He went to the source and his oral interviews constitute a tremendous historical resource. Toland shows that Hitler was sexually normal, which is important since Hitler's supposed "deviant sexuality" is the lynchpin of many inferior books. If you are to read one book about Adolf Hitler, make it this one. Nothing better has come down the pike in the 25 years since this books publication. For anyone interested in the history of the 20th century and World War II, this is a must read.
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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!
Rating:
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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