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Adolf Hitler: Vol. 1
Get more insight about Hitler.
1035 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
11 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
John Toland
40 books194 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John^Toland - 17th century theologian, Philosopher & Satirist
John^^Toland - American writer and historian (WWII & Dillinger)
John^^^Toland - Article: "The Man who Reads Minds"
John Willard Toland (June 29, 1912 in La Crosse, Wisconsin - January 4, 2004 in Danbury, Connecticut) was an American author and historian. He is best known for his biography of Adolf Hitler.[1]
Toland tried to write history as a straightforward narrative, with minimal analysis or judgment. This method may have stemmed from his original goal of becoming a playwright. In the summers between his college years, he travelled with hobos and wrote several plays with hobos as central characters, none of which achieved the stage.[2] At one point he managed to publish an article on dirigibles in Look magazine; it proved extremely popular and led to his career as a historian.
One exception to his general approach is his Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath about the Pearl Harbor attack and the investigations of it, in which he wrote about evidence that President Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance of plans to attack the naval base but remained silent. The book was widely criticized at the time. Since the original publication, Toland added new evidence and rebutted early critics. Also, an anonymous source, known as "Seaman Z" (Robert D. Ogg) has since come forth to publicly tell his story.
Perhaps his most important work, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, is The Rising Sun. Based on original and extensive interviews with high Japanese officials who survived the war, the book chronicles Imperial Japan from the military rebellion of February 1936 to the end of World War II. The book won the Pulitzer because it was the first book in English to tell the history of the war in the Pacific from the Japanese point of view, rather than from an American perspective.
The stories of the battles for the stepping stones to Japan, the islands in the Pacific which had come under Japanese domination, are told from the perspective of the commander sitting in his cave rather than from that of the heroic forces engaged in the assault. Most of these commanders committed suicide at the conclusion of the battle, but Toland was able to reconstruct their viewpoint from letters to their wives and from reports they sent to Tokyo. Toland died in 2004 of pneumonia.
While predominantly a non-fiction author, Toland also wrote two historical novels, Gods of War and Occupation. He says in his autobiography that he earned little money from his Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Rising Sun, but was set for life from the earnings of his biography of Hitler, for which he also did original research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tol...
John^Toland - 17th century theologian, Philosopher & Satirist
John^^Toland - American writer and historian (WWII & Dillinger)
John^^^Toland - Article: "The Man who Reads Minds"
John Willard Toland (June 29, 1912 in La Crosse, Wisconsin - January 4, 2004 in Danbury, Connecticut) was an American author and historian. He is best known for his biography of Adolf Hitler.[1]
Toland tried to write history as a straightforward narrative, with minimal analysis or judgment. This method may have stemmed from his original goal of becoming a playwright. In the summers between his college years, he travelled with hobos and wrote several plays with hobos as central characters, none of which achieved the stage.[2] At one point he managed to publish an article on dirigibles in Look magazine; it proved extremely popular and led to his career as a historian.
One exception to his general approach is his Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath about the Pearl Harbor attack and the investigations of it, in which he wrote about evidence that President Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance of plans to attack the naval base but remained silent. The book was widely criticized at the time. Since the original publication, Toland added new evidence and rebutted early critics. Also, an anonymous source, known as "Seaman Z" (Robert D. Ogg) has since come forth to publicly tell his story.
Perhaps his most important work, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, is The Rising Sun. Based on original and extensive interviews with high Japanese officials who survived the war, the book chronicles Imperial Japan from the military rebellion of February 1936 to the end of World War II. The book won the Pulitzer because it was the first book in English to tell the history of the war in the Pacific from the Japanese point of view, rather than from an American perspective.
The stories of the battles for the stepping stones to Japan, the islands in the Pacific which had come under Japanese domination, are told from the perspective of the commander sitting in his cave rather than from that of the heroic forces engaged in the assault. Most of these commanders committed suicide at the conclusion of the battle, but Toland was able to reconstruct their viewpoint from letters to their wives and from reports they sent to Tokyo. Toland died in 2004 of pneumonia.
While predominantly a non-fiction author, Toland also wrote two historical novels, Gods of War and Occupation. He says in his autobiography that he earned little money from his Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Rising Sun, but was set for life from the earnings of his biography of Hitler, for which he also did original research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tol...
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 16, 2014
At well over 1000 pgs, completely amazing (not the man, Hitler, but this book). I was totally engrossed in this bio--as if I was reading an actual novel/thriller. Having been to Germany and Austria, and having visited some of the terrain and sights and locations, I felt immersed in this bio from the opening scenes. Plus this was written and published some years back, the author able to interview hundreds of folks who actually knew Hitler (that in itself makes this the definitive Hitler history of all time). This is now one of my favorite non-fiction titles of all time. Why didn't I read it sooner.
December 1, 2020
I’ve read numerous books about WW2 and Hitler since I was a teenager. Being a fan of reading about history in general and WW2 in particular. That being said this book has taught me a lot about Hitler and his life that I had never even heard about from several other books and countless documentaries. If for whatever reason you are interested in reading about Hitler this book is probably the definitive book on Hitler. Looking forward to reading the next volume.
November 29, 2022
Finally, John Toland’s takes on Hitler
There are Hitler books by experts, conspiracy theorists, crackpots, and those that have strange agendas. We even have Mein Kompf.
Everything one reads has a different view of the same man in the same history. John Toland is no different as he compiled what he considers the truth from actual people that knew Hitler.
This two-volume book is well written and may give you a different insight into the workings of Hitler. Sometimes it has the feeling of a novel.
If you are interested in part 2 “in the Beginning Was the Word” chapter 6. “The beer hall Putsch”, which is about 33 pages long and you also might be interested in "Munich 1923" by John Dornberg.
There are Hitler books by experts, conspiracy theorists, crackpots, and those that have strange agendas. We even have Mein Kompf.
Everything one reads has a different view of the same man in the same history. John Toland is no different as he compiled what he considers the truth from actual people that knew Hitler.
This two-volume book is well written and may give you a different insight into the workings of Hitler. Sometimes it has the feeling of a novel.
If you are interested in part 2 “in the Beginning Was the Word” chapter 6. “The beer hall Putsch”, which is about 33 pages long and you also might be interested in "Munich 1923" by John Dornberg.
November 17, 2022
Yes, this book took me forever to read, but it's about Hitler, for heaven's sake. I'm just really thankful I bought the two volume version, because I'm sure the one volume version would take me another 2 years.
Vol 1 ended with the annexation of the Sudetenland. I have to say that the British and French didn't come out of that smelling like roses, although the author did try to make it clear that they did think it would keep the peace in Europe. Not great judges of characters, but of course, it's easy for me to say with 20/20 hindsight.
Vol 1 ended with the annexation of the Sudetenland. I have to say that the British and French didn't come out of that smelling like roses, although the author did try to make it clear that they did think it would keep the peace in Europe. Not great judges of characters, but of course, it's easy for me to say with 20/20 hindsight.
May 1, 2020
This is history. I read this book 15 pages per day. This man is vile. I am looking forward to reading the second book to this collection.
April 30, 2021
Fascinating read getting behind this mad man.
December 7, 2022
Excellent read about one sick unit.
April 17, 2024
As a historian, I can say unequivocally that this is the best biography of Adolf Hitler I've ever read.
December 16, 2015
This is superb biography, published in 1976, some 30 years after Hitler's death and based on massive research and superior writing by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author. There are such personal items as Hitler being a vegetarian, having a photographic memory, and being the central architect of the Jewish "Final Solution" using "some methods inspired by the US subjugation of the American Indian." (Does that mean forced relocation?)
Fortunately I have the 2nd instead of the 1st volume of this massive biography, covering all the time from 1938 and Crystal Night to "Five minutes past midnight" of April 30, 1945. The treatment brings out Hitler's fine knowledge of history, his mistrust of his chief officers, his dictatorial treatment of his aides, and his fixation on the Jewish race. I enjoyed reading the detail on the Battle of the Bulge and on to the final collapse - a rapid reading of distilled history with lots of quotations making it seem as if written down [not as the above publisher's ad says] but the very day after the actual events took place, as an objective omniscient observer. Hitler emerges as a very human individual, a dynamic leader, paranoid, obsessed, at times charismatic, but a focused strong leader.
An example of Toland's content:- he provides detail of the British secret intelligence service use of the Enigma cipher machine at Bletchley Park to intercept secret German military messages on this machine designed by a Polish mathematician(the English buying the machine from him for 10,000 pounds, and a British passport and a resident's permit in France for this scientist and his wife.
To check the veracity of this statement, I checked Wikipedia which reports in 2015 "German military messages enciphered on the Enigma machine were first broken by the Cipher Bureau, beginning in December 1932. This success was a result of efforts by three Polish cryptologists, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, working for Polish military intelligence. Rejewski "reverse-engineered" the device, using theoretical mathematics and material supplied by French military intelligence. Subsequently the three mathematicians designed mechanical devices for breaking Enigma ciphers,"
Fortunately I have the 2nd instead of the 1st volume of this massive biography, covering all the time from 1938 and Crystal Night to "Five minutes past midnight" of April 30, 1945. The treatment brings out Hitler's fine knowledge of history, his mistrust of his chief officers, his dictatorial treatment of his aides, and his fixation on the Jewish race. I enjoyed reading the detail on the Battle of the Bulge and on to the final collapse - a rapid reading of distilled history with lots of quotations making it seem as if written down [not as the above publisher's ad says] but the very day after the actual events took place, as an objective omniscient observer. Hitler emerges as a very human individual, a dynamic leader, paranoid, obsessed, at times charismatic, but a focused strong leader.
An example of Toland's content:- he provides detail of the British secret intelligence service use of the Enigma cipher machine at Bletchley Park to intercept secret German military messages on this machine designed by a Polish mathematician(the English buying the machine from him for 10,000 pounds, and a British passport and a resident's permit in France for this scientist and his wife.
To check the veracity of this statement, I checked Wikipedia which reports in 2015 "German military messages enciphered on the Enigma machine were first broken by the Cipher Bureau, beginning in December 1932. This success was a result of efforts by three Polish cryptologists, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, working for Polish military intelligence. Rejewski "reverse-engineered" the device, using theoretical mathematics and material supplied by French military intelligence. Subsequently the three mathematicians designed mechanical devices for breaking Enigma ciphers,"
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October 2, 2014What I thought about this book is that it is quite neutral. Which is a good thing, I've found out. To write without feeling getting in the way, is a feat. Especially considering it's Hitler, people don't tend to like him all that much. Either way, Mr. Toland described Hitler's early life beautifully. I say early life, because I haven't finished the book yet. I went to as far as his army days, before a dreaded enemy of mine came along. Politics. As such I don't have much of a review, but I really don't get politics. It hurts my brain, and makes me sleepy. But altogether a interesting, riveting book of someones life. I feel like he has accomplished (this Toland fellow) something rare. A simple statement of facts, a way to sort of make him into the human he was. Many people forget that, but remember his ideas of nazism. I think this is a really good book for simple thought of reason. It shows him as a painter, a creator, a child. Someone who used to be afraid of the dark, cared for his mother deeply and had a life. Not an idea. I also liked the thought of cute little "Adi". This book I absoulutely rate 5/5 for a put together interior and a wicked awesome exterior, I mean LOOK at it! Wicked cool!
June 9, 2015
Early (1976) comprehensive and definitive biography of Hitler. Well done but so depressing in content and import that I can't rate it a classic.
Hitler appears more human, more pathetic, and more culpable for his behavior and his results. Toland leaves no doubt as he marshals the documentary evidence that the "final solution" to the 'Jewish problem" (total annihilation) was not a side-tracking of the Hitler (and Party , and German nation, there was no distinction as he moved into power) plan.
It seems I have spent all summer going from Lincoln to Napoleon to Hitler in a darkening spiral. Tellingly, Hitler compared himself to Napoleon, as may seem most apropos given the political geography they shared. Had either man the shining moral and spiritual compass of Lincoln how different history would have been!
Hitler appears more human, more pathetic, and more culpable for his behavior and his results. Toland leaves no doubt as he marshals the documentary evidence that the "final solution" to the 'Jewish problem" (total annihilation) was not a side-tracking of the Hitler (and Party , and German nation, there was no distinction as he moved into power) plan.
It seems I have spent all summer going from Lincoln to Napoleon to Hitler in a darkening spiral. Tellingly, Hitler compared himself to Napoleon, as may seem most apropos given the political geography they shared. Had either man the shining moral and spiritual compass of Lincoln how different history would have been!
June 27, 2013
I read both volumes 1 and 2. This will give you the full picture of Adolf Hitler.
July 19, 2013
Part one of the best bio of Adolf Hitler ever written
February 15, 2014
Read both volumes. Way good.
Want to read
December 27, 2016I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14337692
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14337692
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews