Hitler

Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: War Leader #3

by Alan Wykes

Vintage WWII softcover

Genres: History

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Christopher Rush · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's got to be a difficult task writing an engaging biography about one of humanity's worst, and Mr. Wykes proves how difficult it is to quantify "evil" in a world that rejects absolute moral standards. Mr. Wykes takes the foundational position Adolf Hitler had syphilis, and that is supposed to explain effectively everything, in combination with his patriotic ire at the surrender in World War 1 admixed with his learned hate for all-things Jewish. His long-standing untreated syphilis was responsible for Hitler's ravings, his megalomania, his obduracy, and his maniacal military decisions especially from Stalingrad to the end. Mr. Wykes never comes out and says it directly, but the reader gets the vague impression we (as humanity in general) are supposed to be thankful for Adolf's disease and the pseudo-medical people around him who mis-treated him.

What are we expecting when we read a biography of such a person? That may be as of much importance as learning about the person him- or herself. It's doubtful we are looking for validation of our collective animosity - there haven't been too many people who have been fundamentally mistreated by history without the opportunity for proper scholarship restoration these days, and certainly history has not been too unkind to Hitler. I was looking for insight on what, if anything, made him good at his job - how did this guy rally a nation around him, or at least a powerful coterie of people around him who then in turned snatched a country away from someone else and took it in such a horrible direction. I didn't get a lot of that from Mr. Wykes, since his overall focus was Hitler as a military leader during World War 2. We get a little bit about the pre-war events, though we are usually directed to the more thorough biographies for that, and I don't have the stomach for that just now. For instance, I'm still wondering why, if so many of his high-ranking generals and whatnot hated him and hated what he was doing to Germany, why they didn't just take out a gun and shoot him and sacrifice themselves to the retribution of the SS or whomever. Mr. Wykes does not explore that, but that could be because it is all speculation and not their biography.

What interesting tidbits I did get about Hitler's generalship early in the war were intriguing, and from this section perhaps comes the strongest intimations of how grateful we should be for his disease, assuming Mr. Wykes' wholly-physical explanation for Hitler's "evil" or "mania" is correct, with which I'm not in full agreement. We are told Hitler brought about such a successful blitzkrieg because he, unlike the generalship he "inherited," shall we say, and the generalship in complacent England and France and everywhere else in western Europe, did not think in terms of WW1 combat. This perplexity is compounded by the radical change in warfare during World War 1 itself, not only the different way it was fought with trenches and mustard gas as the usual motifs, but the introduction toward the end of armored tanks and their revolution in warfare again should have led the allies to realize no one would think of warfare in Napoleonic terms again. Mr. Wykes does treat briefly on the Treaty of Versailles and how foolhardy it was, which may be the explanation: the "good guys" assumed they had permanently beaten Germany down surely no "civilized" world would have started a war again. And that is generally, what our textbooks tell us, the western world mentality during the '20s after all.

Hitler, strangely enough, learned from WW1, saw what worked, assumed his enemies had grown flabby and content with their "heroic" emasculation of Germany, and used their tactics against them and basically bullied them into retreat and panic for years. Had Hitler not reneged on his treaty with Russia and squandered so many troops on the eastern front, WW2 would likely have gone quite differently. And it is here that Mr. Wykes's explanation of Hitler's flaws seem like wishful thinking: the syphilis compounded Hitler's jealousy of his military advisers and field commanders (a jealousy begun by his own mediocre performance in WW1 and the love of his life wooed away by higher-ranking officers or something like that) caused him to ignore their sound advice at times; similarly, the disease made him require total control over the armies even preventing army commanders from ordering reinforcements and other immediate-concern military decisions one would suppose an army commander actually on the front lines should be able to make without having to request permission from the head of the country hundreds of miles away.

For many reasons such as these, all of them effectively centering on Hitler's ego and his sickness, we are left with the impression Hitler had an uncanny ability to understand warfare and his enemies better than almost anyone else alive at the time, but his own personality and his disease brought about his own destruction and Germany's as well ... and in the end we are supposed to feel like we caught a lucky break. I'm not fully convinced by all this, but the only way to understand the issue more is to do more research, and as I intimated above, it's such a distasteful topic I don't know if I can do that anytime soon.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well I thought Charles Whiting hated Patton but Alan Wykes takes this to a whole new level. An interesting theory as to why Hitler behave the way he did and a quite plausible theory as to why as well but I don't think he does a good enough job making his point about it. Plus I think the history of Hitler throughout the second world war becomes jumbled when he does such a straightforward job of going through his early life in the first part of the book. Events and moments jump all over the place as he tries to frame his history in the context of Hitler dealing with syphilis. If this were indeed a history of him being a war leader that effort was lost in trying to explain why he was so crazy and that he didn't get along with his Generals. I think we have here a good theory of why Hitler was the way he was but not enough to show how his personality truly impacted all the events although there were glimpses here and there. Glad to be done the book though - had enough of Hitler to last for a little while.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

No single volume can do justice to Hitler, the mightiest mover of the twentieth century. He aimed for a global German empire and instead engendered a divided Germany and Europe, a strengthened Soviet Communist regime and the world's first superpower, the United States. Alan Wykes stresses the destructive nature of Hitler. His hatred for the world was already present in his Vienna watercolors, showing no people. But, is there consistency in Adolf Hitler? Hitler the war leader Wykes judges a failure. A.J.P. Taylor's controversial thesis that any German chancellor chosen between the world wars would have pursued similar expansionist aims is sidelined here. Important questions on the origins of Hitler's anti-semitism, and when it became exterminationist, are beyond the scope of this book. Wykes provides a solid introduction to the life and career of the fuhrer while avoiding controversy.

[Russell R · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book by Ballantine

[Jake · Rating 2 out of 5]

As we all know, Hitler was the dictator of Germany in the 40s, but in this book, by Alan Wykes, it shows an image closer to the drama and other characteristics of the German fuhrer. The purpose of this book is to inform others about Hitler if you hadn't already known him or you just wanted to reread about the Nazi leader. Why? Alan wrote this because obviously there was more to the man that met the eye.
I would have to say that the theme in this book is 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. Why would that be an accurate description of this book? Many people today just know that Hitler was the German leader and was a terrible person and all the cushioned crud that students hear in school, but the actual truth is that Hitler had a few awkward ticks in his head. While in the 40s, Hitler was an idol for bringing back his country to the top. For instance, there was Germany, in a ginormous depression, and Hitler brought them up from being the 'scum' of the earth and making all German citizens feel like they had worth and they weren't scum.
The style of this book is an argument, like you just read, Hitler brought his country back to normal and all citizens felt great. Now after WWII, we all know that Hitler was a horrible man; also, that Hitler's head just wasn't on track of the average male.
This book was alright, I knew many of the topics presented to me, but I learned some new things that really made me think of Hitler differently. I wouldn't recommend this book to others, why? I wouldn't because this book is slow and just is a recap of what you learn in school with a few alterations.

[Ryuta Fukuya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is easy biography of Adolf Hitler.
The author concluded his tendency of paranoia was due to syphilis(Progressive paralysis)
He was infected in his twenties. I agree we can explain his symptoms (Parkinsonism, Paranoia, etc.)at the late phase of his life were due to the third phase of syphilis. But I don't agree his paranoiac personality in his thirties when he grasped the political powers. Because Spirochaetors cannot reach to the central nervous system within 10 years.
Anyway my point is " Why did German people supported Hitler ?" . Sometimes the answer is he is a dictator, and the German was oppressed also. But please think , to make a tyrant, he or she needs popularity, in other word, the people should have common illusion ( He should be a leader).
The thing I mentioned never be criticism against German people. But I wish to point current situation is similar to 1930`s. The politician who would like to get popularity is tend to set a public enemy easily. In 1930`s Jewish people, in 21st centuries immigrant. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't want to oppose the immigrant policies , I mean regulation for the flow of immigrant.
But during discussion about immigrant, please don't blame immigrant people, they are just unlucky. People should discuss the fault of previous policies.
Why I sympathize immigrant people is that I have relatives who were Japanese immigrants before the Pacific war. The logic which blame current immigrant people seems to be similar it against Japanese Americans in 1920`s.

[Andrew Lord · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of the life of Hitler, in a highly-abbreviated format. Seems to be mostly written in a manner to continually justify the author's belief that syphilis was the main cause for Hitler's relatively quick and relentless downfall into near-insanity.