Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Hitler

Rate this book
Adolf Hitler sündis 1889. aastal väikeses Austria piirilinnas Inni-äärses Braunaus alamkeskklassi perekonnas. Tema varasem elu ei vihjanud vähimalgi määral tegelasele, kes paneb kord maailma hinge kinni hoidma. Pigem näis see vihjavat tähtsusetule ja keskpärasele tulevikule.

Hitleri võimu lahtimõtestamine tõstatab mitmeid väga keerukaid probleeme. Küsimus ,,Kuidas oli Hitler üldse võimalik?" kummitas temaaegseid natsismi vastaseid ja on andnud ajaloolastele peamurdmist siiani.

240 pages, Paperback

Published August 17, 2000

19 people are currently reading
369 people want to read

About the author

Ian Kershaw

106 books1,081 followers
Ian Kershaw is a British historian, noted for his biographies of Adolf Hitler.
Ian Kershaw studied at Liverpool (BA) and Oxford (D. Phil). He was a lecturer first in medieval, then in modern, history at the University of Manchester. In 1983-4 he was Visiting Professor of Modern History at the Ruhr University in Bochum, West Germany. From 1987 to 1989 he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Nottingham, and since 1989 has been Professor of Modern History at Sheffield. He is a fellow of the British Academy, of the Royal Historical Society, of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bonn. He retired from academic life in the autumn semester of 2008.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
86 (28%)
4 stars
124 (40%)
3 stars
62 (20%)
2 stars
27 (8%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
Profile Image for DS25.
551 reviews15 followers
June 26, 2023
Ogni inizio estate devo leggere un testo sul III Reich o su H., per cominciare bene.

E, come al solito, mi terrorizza. Non tanto per le vicende storiche, che sono conosciute, ma per lo sviluppo totalmente erratico della politica hitleriana, per la sua portata storica, per la sua concezione politica. Perché, sebbene da amante della storia e storico (anche se non di questo periodo) so bene che le condizioni socio-economiche, ideologiche, religiose, sono completamente diverse rispetto all'ambiente della Germania Weimariana, raramente si vede un momento della storia così connotato dal male in ogni sua forma e dimensione. Un male che, come sottolinea Kershaw, ha come obiettivo quello dell'annientamento, di sé o dell'altro, che nasce per distruggere e non per generare.
E a questo limite nessun altro regime, sia di destra, sia di sinistra, si è mai avvicinato nel corso della storia.
Profile Image for Lorién Gómez.
117 reviews5 followers
October 17, 2023
Libro enfocado en cómo y de qué manera se constituyó la forma de dominación nazi, en su poder, centrándose en la figura de Hitler. Se inspira en el modelo weberiano de la legitimidad carismática y da buena cuenta del carácter entrópico del nazismo, dirigido a la destrucción y a la autodestrucción.

"Carente de energía constructiva y creativa, articulado tan solo impulsos de destrucción cada vez más violentos, el final más apropiado para el poder de Hitler era, pues, el final que efectivamente tuvo: una bala en la cabeza, dejando que el pueblo alemán pagara el precio de su disposición a dejarse estafar por un líder que no ofrecía opciones políticas limitadas, sino una tentadora visión milenarista, aunque vacía e ilusoria, de la redención política ".
Profile Image for Lizixer.
286 reviews32 followers
August 20, 2012
Of all the monstrous people the twentieth century threw up, it is Hitler's rise to power than raises the most questions for me. Kershaw's masterly short study of how he became so powerful and why the German people supported him goes a long way to answering those questions.

There's, of course, no one neat answer. Germany's democracy was fragile with the Depression causing widespread misery. Huge life denying political ideologies mixed up with largely uncontested theories of social Darwinism and eugenics were causing revolution, war and terror across Europe. Faced with collapse and decay, a 'strong man', prepared to promise vague utopias and visionary futures of a great and unified Germany minus 'aliens', the 'unfit' and the 'criminal', was able to convince an elite who desired autocratic rule and a people who simply wanted someone to take 'personal responsibility' that he had the solution.

Hitler, people believed, was going to build the 'state of the little man' - a place of "mythical 'normality' in which the 'rightfully deserving' would receive what rightfully theirs". Ultimately, this politics of 'national salvation' would lead them into a calamitous collapse of civilisation, descent into genocidal war and a defeat that would leave moral scars and trauma both for the victims of Nazism and for a post-war German nation who struggled to live with the legacy of those terrible years.

For anyone who is interested in how that 12 years from election to destruction played out, Kershaw's book is THE starting place.
6 reviews
December 19, 2021
Un libro che tutti dovrebbero leggere, molto attuale nei contenuti e nei "rischi" di affidarsi a un "potere carismatico", basato su un asset di Idee non ben determinate, appunto flessibili e promesse salvifiche ma vuote e illusorie. Si possono davvero trovare molti spunti di riflessione e "warning".
Non privo di difetti, come svariate ripetizioni, in periodi anche appena successivi, e una sintassi molto strutturata e complessa, che non facilita una lettura scorrevole.
Comunque fortemente consigliato.
4,379 reviews56 followers
October 13, 2024
One thing about this rating system is that it is based on if you like a book or not, instead of looking at it in a critical manner about the writing, the subject matter, etc. I don't like this subject matter but I did think that it was well written and provides a manageable overview of it. The particular focus on the exercise of power was not an angle I had read before in such detail for a monograph of this length.
Profile Image for Morgan Baliviera.
213 reviews1 follower
March 26, 2024
Come ha fatto Hitler ad avere presa su milioni di tedeschi tra la fine degli anni ‘20 e il 1945? Quali tecniche sono state usate dai suoi propagandisti, dal suo partito prima e durante il suo governo? Qual era la modalità con la quale Hitler ha governato per 12 anni il Terzo Reich? Ian Kershaw, in questo saggio, lo spiega in maniera chiara ed interessante.
Profile Image for Kara.
133 reviews11 followers
February 16, 2009
This bio was just OK. It was so short and simultaneously so fact-packed that it couldn't be anything but boring. It focused exclusively on what Hitler did but never considered who he was, which to me is the more interesting question.
Profile Image for Maria Grazia.
56 reviews32 followers
August 10, 2015
Analisi completa e dettagliata delle situazione tedesca al tempo della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Sono presi in considerazione non solo gli aspetti politici e militari, ma anche culturali, socio-economici ed ideologici.
Profile Image for ben c.
99 reviews
May 25, 2024
“It makes no difference whatever whether they laugh at us or revile us … whether they represent us as clowns or criminals; the main thing is that they mention us, that they concern themselves with us again and again …”
Everyone laughed at Hitler in the 1920s. A century on, are we making the same mistake?
Adrian Chiles https://www.theguardian.com/

...got as far as the free kindle sample allows, but it was enough to get the general idea, was no more than an opportunist with an acknowledged public speaking match for that time and place...should have stuck with architecture might have been less dangerous who knows..
1 review
July 22, 2024
As a fan of Kershaw’s later work I found myself a tad underwhelmed with this. While it makes some very interesting points, especially towards the end where Kershaw discusses the legacy of the Nazi regime, I felt it could’ve done with some editing in places.

Despite already being a fairly short book (compared to Kershaw’s other works on Hitler, at least) it didn’t feel as dynamic and original as his later stuff, seeming to go round in circles a few too many times.

Ultimately it regained my interest by the end but I feel like Kershaw repeats the same points too many times in the middle chapters to earn anything more than a 3/5.
Profile Image for Cristiana Facchini.
217 reviews3 followers
March 17, 2025
Bel testo, molto ben documentato ma sulla parte dei dissidenti verso il regime nazista,
presenta errori e lacune.
La chiesa cattolica viene genericamente accomunata a quella protestante,
e spesso liquidata con 'stavano in silenzio',
senza invece mostrare il lavoro di diplomazia, di servizi segreti, etc. etc.
Anche sull'operazione Walkiria ci sono solo cenni.

Consigliato per capire meglio il nazismo, ma senz'altro
servono altri testi di approfondimento.
Profile Image for Noemi Cecioni.
2 reviews
December 21, 2025
«Quelli che erano abituati a pensare, continuano a pensare, mentre quelli che non lo erano adesso lo fanno ancora meno. Solo che oggi i pensanti non sono più in grado di guidare i non pensanti»
18 reviews
August 4, 2024
Un’eccellente opera perfetta per chi volesse avere un’introduzione alle storiografie sia sulla vita di Hitler sia sul funzionamento del terzo Reich. Nonostante non sia chiaramente l’intento primario del libro fare anche una storiografia della guerra, ciò che viene trattato dall’autore è indispensabile e ben gestito per comprendere il contesto e il succedersi degli eventi. Consigliatissimo
Profile Image for Karl.
378 reviews7 followers
June 25, 2024
Ian Kershaw presents a brief but effective portrait of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, with a focus on how the dictator and his henchmen obtained and used political power. There is only a brief outline of Hitler's life or the history of his times. Instead, Kershaw looks at the Nazi state as a political system and Hitler as a political leader. What is he finds is a governmental system akin to feudalism, where powerful individuals assumed roles in the party-state not due to constitutional or administrative logic, but due to their proximity to Hitler and their ability to "work towards the Führer" (fulfill or anticipate his wishes). While the Nazi system was clearly totalitarian, it was also disorganized and fractious, as different bureaucratic fiefdoms struggled for control, using Hitler's support, however vague, to advance their preferred policies. While Hitler was the final authority, and no major policy could be implemented without his support, he was largely disengaged from the day-to-day work of governing, except in those areas like foreign policy that drew his special attention. When it came to the most criminal acts of the regime, the murder of the Jews and the disabled, Hitler made his wishes known verbally and left it to his lieutenants to make it happen.

Overall, this is an excellent primer on the Nazi regime and very good introduction to the political system of Nazi Germany.
Profile Image for Mohammed Kotb.
114 reviews4 followers
January 8, 2022
An interesting book dealing with a lot of details and negating a lot of myths regarding Hitler and the Nazi movement. This book is reminiscent of Egypt in its 2013 crisis. The entire country was gripped by what is known as the islamic fascism. The Egyptian armed forces rose to its call and took the responsibility and ousted the fascistic government. Should the military refrained from up rooting the Islamic fascists, the entire country would have descended into the abyss of civil war.
Democracy without being supported by a secular society might be detrimental in highly emotional societies like the middle eastern and the Germans of post world war I era.
Extremism is evil, whether it is political or religious. Both of them rips man of his conscious.
Democracy on the western style is not applicable in a society who looks in cynicism towards human rights and values of secular society. Unless our middle eastern people start embracing human rights and the modern values of liberty, no success can be gained from deomcracy.
Profile Image for Alberto Stracuzzi.
12 reviews1 follower
May 15, 2022
Fondamentale.

Il consenso al nazismo fu una mescolanza di più fattori: la debolezza delle istituzioni tedesche, la sproporzione delle sanzioni imposte alla fine della I guerra mondiale, la decisione perseguita dalla borghesia tedesca di isolare e annientare il movimento operaio in ogni forma che non fosse portatrice di esplicita sottomissione, la tacita se non esplicita solidarietà delel cancellerie occidentali fintanto che i deportati erano comunisti, sindacalisti e radicali vari.

E fu consenso: se è vero che il governo nazionalsocialista fu feroce e dispotico, poté contare sull'entusiastico plauso di certuni, sul quieto vivere di moltissimi, sulla fanatica fedeltà deli dirigenti della NSDAP

Nulla di "eccezionale" se non la "banalità del male", e purtroppo nulla di "irripetibile"
Profile Image for Mathieu.
375 reviews21 followers
August 10, 2011
A défaut de lire la monumentale biographie en deux tomes du même Kershaw, j'ai lu cette monographie dans laquelle il développe sa fameuse théorie du charisme en politique qui fait la synthèse entre l'école intentionnaliste et l'école fonctionnaliste: le régime nazi n'a ni procédé de la personnalité d'un Hitler omniprésent ni des hasards d'un Etat bureaucratique chaotique mais la figure du Fuhrer (plus que celle de Hitler lui-même) servait de catalyseur, de référence indispensable au fonctionnement du régime et aux prises de décisions (dont, notamment, celle de la "Solution finale"). Indispensable.
Profile Image for Tyler Bray.
95 reviews9 followers
November 27, 2012
Was very insightful.

It did not defend Hitler in any way but rather explained why the visions and fears Hitler brought were so appealing to the people of the Weimar. It explained his tactics, his 'prophesies' and his social awkwardness. Hitler had a lack of caring for people and soldiers and in the end his self-destructive tendencies brought his imminent fall.
Profile Image for Eric Allen.
13 reviews
August 11, 2016
Very factual, which is what you would want in a historical biography. But, he goes over the same facts over and over again. Shortest biography I have read, but I wouldn't have finished this if it was the typical length for a biography of Hitler. Reading the same material from chapter to chapter makes a boring read.
27 reviews
May 10, 2022
was forced to read this for History of Western Civ since 1715, ended up being really impressed with the conclusions Kershaw draws about Hitler's lack of genius, despite his infamy as a strong (but evil) leader. just wish the book didn't cost 60 dollars, that it had a different cover, and that we would stop glorifying dictators as evil geniuses.
Profile Image for José Marcio da Silva.
52 reviews1 follower
November 16, 2021
Retrato fiel da ascenção de um agitador de cervejaria até o cargo de Líder da Alemanha.
Todo o apoio frágil que se constituiu e perpassou por toda a sociedade alemã.
Agressões ao capitalismo, ao marxismo e aos judeus, bodes expiatórios.
Melhor compreendido se ligo em conjunto com High Hitler que fala do papel das anfetaminas nas tropas e na sociedade civil.
Profile Image for Mike.
27 reviews
Read
January 23, 2009
I saw it at the checkout line at the library... I'll let you know how it goes.
It was a 2-week check out and I only read the first 250 (of 1,000) pages. It got up to 1933 when Hitler became Chancelor of Germany.
Profile Image for Yenkl.
85 reviews6 followers
June 20, 2020
L'auteur nous présente un Hitler démythifié, les circonstances historiques , politiques et sociales dans lesquelles s'est opérée son incroyable ascension.
Le texte est détaillé, érudit, impartial mais nullement rébarbatif mais au contraire, facile à lire et passionnant.
109 reviews1 follower
May 6, 2022
Libro molto ben documentato.
Propone un modello interpretativo del potere hitleriano solido e molto ben argomentato, che non si basa su impressioni superficiali, ma su uno studio approfondito e in gran parte condivisibile.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.