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Hitler: The Path to Power
A wonderful book that is both less and more than a biography. It is incomplete as a biography, because it only covers the period from WWI to about 1924. However, within that time it examines not only Hitler but the times and conditions that allowed his ideas and meglomania to grow. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
686 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1989
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115 people want to read
About the author
Charles Bracelen Flood
17 books24 followersCharles Bracelen Flood was born in Manhattan, and graduated from Harvard, where he was a member of Archibald MacLeish’s noted creative writing seminar, English S, and was on the literary board of the Harvard Lampoon. (In 2001, Flood was honored with the Lampoon’s Clem Wood Award; past recipients have included George Plimpton, John Updike, and Conan O’Brien.)
Love is a Bridge, Flood’s first novel, received nationwide critical attention, and was on the New York Times Bestseller list for 26 weeks. It won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. The twelve books he has written include the novels A Distant Drum and More Lives Than One. Praising Flood’s The War of the Innocents, his account of his year spent in Vietnam as a correspondent, John Updike said of him, “This brave and compassionate reporter’s account of a year spent with our armed forces in Vietnam tells more of the physical actualities and moral complexities of the American involvement than any other book I have read.” Flood’s Rise, and Fight Again won the American Revolution Round Table Annual Award for 1976, the Bicentennial Year, and his Hitler - The Path to Power, a History Book Club selection, was among the successful studies in history and biography that followed. All his books have also appeared in paperback.
Flood’s first venture into the Civil War era was Lee - The Last Years, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and won the Colonial Dames of America Annual Book Award. Lee was followed by Grant and Sherman - The Friendship That Won the Civil War, a work that the Washington Post described as “beautifully defined and explored…a powerful and illuminating study of the military collaboration that won the war for the Union.” Salon.com named it as one of the ”Top 12 Civil War Books Ever Written.” Of his 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History, published in 2009, Lincoln’s Bicentennial Year, Kent Masterson Brown, author of Retreat from Gettysburg, said, “Lincoln walks off the pages as in no other book,” and in the New York Times Janet Maslin wrote, “Mr. Floods versatility is impressive …1864 compresses the multiple demands upon Lincoln into a tight time frame and thus captures a dizzying, visceral sense of why this single year took such a heavy toll.”
This writer’s short pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other magazines, and a number of his books have been translated into foreign languages. Flood’s journalistic experiences have taken him to many countries, including being a reporter for the Associated Press at the Olympics held in Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo and Mexico City. He has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, and taught World Literature for two years at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Charles Bracelen Flood is a past president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization, and has served on the governing bodies of the Authors League and Authors Guild. He and his wife Katherine Burnam Flood live in Richmond, Kentucky, in that state’s Bluegrass region.
Love is a Bridge, Flood’s first novel, received nationwide critical attention, and was on the New York Times Bestseller list for 26 weeks. It won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. The twelve books he has written include the novels A Distant Drum and More Lives Than One. Praising Flood’s The War of the Innocents, his account of his year spent in Vietnam as a correspondent, John Updike said of him, “This brave and compassionate reporter’s account of a year spent with our armed forces in Vietnam tells more of the physical actualities and moral complexities of the American involvement than any other book I have read.” Flood’s Rise, and Fight Again won the American Revolution Round Table Annual Award for 1976, the Bicentennial Year, and his Hitler - The Path to Power, a History Book Club selection, was among the successful studies in history and biography that followed. All his books have also appeared in paperback.
Flood’s first venture into the Civil War era was Lee - The Last Years, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and won the Colonial Dames of America Annual Book Award. Lee was followed by Grant and Sherman - The Friendship That Won the Civil War, a work that the Washington Post described as “beautifully defined and explored…a powerful and illuminating study of the military collaboration that won the war for the Union.” Salon.com named it as one of the ”Top 12 Civil War Books Ever Written.” Of his 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History, published in 2009, Lincoln’s Bicentennial Year, Kent Masterson Brown, author of Retreat from Gettysburg, said, “Lincoln walks off the pages as in no other book,” and in the New York Times Janet Maslin wrote, “Mr. Floods versatility is impressive …1864 compresses the multiple demands upon Lincoln into a tight time frame and thus captures a dizzying, visceral sense of why this single year took such a heavy toll.”
This writer’s short pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other magazines, and a number of his books have been translated into foreign languages. Flood’s journalistic experiences have taken him to many countries, including being a reporter for the Associated Press at the Olympics held in Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo and Mexico City. He has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, and taught World Literature for two years at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Charles Bracelen Flood is a past president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization, and has served on the governing bodies of the Authors League and Authors Guild. He and his wife Katherine Burnam Flood live in Richmond, Kentucky, in that state’s Bluegrass region.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 27, 2009
An essential book in the development of my interests. This is a popular history with generally solid research. It covers the period from 1919 to 1924, essentially the beginning years of Hitler's involvement in politics, with the Beer Hall Putsch as its climax, and information about Hitler's trial for treason at the end. This was the book that first informed me about the Bavarian Revolution after the First World War, and also led me to many more useful sources for German history. It is written in an exciting style that will grip readers without academic backgrounds, but is detailed enough (and decently footnoted) to serve as a springboard for research. Probably the best book about the early Nazis I've seen.
January 29, 2016
This is a little older book, from 1989, about Hitler's rise to power and perhaps new information about the period has been learned since it was written, but I still found it to be a rewarding, fascinating, well-written book very much worth my long and careful read. The writing is top quality, and a great deal is learned about the history of Germany of the period and about some of the characters around Hitler. How a man of such limited background and education, with questionable social skills, a demented mind, and no experience in politics and government could come to power even in the war-damaged, politically unstable economic catastrophe that was Germany after World War I is still hard to understand, but this book pries back some of the mystery. My only complaint is the book's abrupt end following Hitler's release from prison after his failed putsch; I would have preferred to see it continue on to his full rise to power in 1933. Ian Kershaw's 2 volume biography of Hitler from a few year's ago is the most current and comprehensive biography of Hitler, but if you want a good understanding of Hitler's initial rise to power, this book remains the best I have read. Highly recommended.
February 10, 2011
The finest account of Hitler's early political activities. I can't think of a better resource. The narrative style brings the history to life. No other book has captured the often farcical and outlandish nature of Weimar Germany quite like Flood's.
March 15, 2025
Unbelievably well written and researched. Highly highly recommend to anyone interested in history.
There is a deep focus on the use of propaganda - using his talents as an orator along with control of a newspaper, he was able to seize the narrative and shape it in his form. To think of how effective his ideas were and how they are still being used effectively, please take the lens of the quote to our present day circumstances:
“The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding […] the way to the attention and the heart of the broad masses.”, and that “all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan”.
There is a clear playbook to a fascist regime that allows the kindling of political discontent to be set on fire into revolution. One just has to pay attention.
There is a deep focus on the use of propaganda - using his talents as an orator along with control of a newspaper, he was able to seize the narrative and shape it in his form. To think of how effective his ideas were and how they are still being used effectively, please take the lens of the quote to our present day circumstances:
“The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding […] the way to the attention and the heart of the broad masses.”, and that “all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan”.
There is a clear playbook to a fascist regime that allows the kindling of political discontent to be set on fire into revolution. One just has to pay attention.
June 14, 2018
Charles Bracelen Flood presents this history of his subject's life with narrative style and plenty of detail. We start in 1918, after Germany loses World War I, and end in 1925, after Adolf Hitler's release from Landsberg Prison. Several of the biographies I have read were first person accounts written by people who had personal relationships with their subject. Flood writes in the third person, allowing him a more objective perspective. This biography is worth a read if you are a Hitler scholar or doing research on the man, the time, or his country, etc. Plenty of historical facts here. XO.
June 17, 2019
This book covers the years from the end of WWI through 1924, when Hitler emerged from prison following the failed Beer Hall Putsch. Although the book is able to provide a great deal of detail by focusing on a relatively short time period, it does not provide much insight beyond what one would gain from reading any of a large number of books on Hitler. Three stars.
August 5, 2024
Excellent history of a crucial period in Hitler's life. The years 1918-1924 were momentous for Germany, as defeat in the Great War, the Versailles Treaty, post-war politcal unrest, and economic chaos combined in a vicious and deadly brew concocted by Hitler.
The author's focus on this short period of time allows a very detailed narrative of all the events and personalities surrounding Hitler's rise. We get both the big picture and the up-close view--including analysis as well as a blow-by-blow account of Germany's nationalist manifestation.
This is Hitler under a microscope: not in a clinical, psychological sense--we see him living his life, striving with all his clever mendacity--but as the ultimate anti-hero, in his own all-too-real reality show. The nightmarish story of the early Nazi era is probably best told in this manner.
Even for the specialist who's well-versed in Hitler and the Nazi movement, this is a valuable read. We see how average people are easily put under a spell by Hitler's performances. That's a phenomenon mentioned in practically all accounts of Hitler; here, though, the reader seems to be right there in the beer hall. An uncanny literary touch, well-suited for this unique subject.
Excellent documentation and footnotes, some good photos as well. Highly recommended.
The author's focus on this short period of time allows a very detailed narrative of all the events and personalities surrounding Hitler's rise. We get both the big picture and the up-close view--including analysis as well as a blow-by-blow account of Germany's nationalist manifestation.
This is Hitler under a microscope: not in a clinical, psychological sense--we see him living his life, striving with all his clever mendacity--but as the ultimate anti-hero, in his own all-too-real reality show. The nightmarish story of the early Nazi era is probably best told in this manner.
Even for the specialist who's well-versed in Hitler and the Nazi movement, this is a valuable read. We see how average people are easily put under a spell by Hitler's performances. That's a phenomenon mentioned in practically all accounts of Hitler; here, though, the reader seems to be right there in the beer hall. An uncanny literary touch, well-suited for this unique subject.
Excellent documentation and footnotes, some good photos as well. Highly recommended.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2014
This is probably the best non-fiction book I've ever read. It reads like a novel, is gripping, and tells in detail a part of history that anyone who is curious about the origins of WW2 (and everyone should be curious about that) should know. Highly reccomended.
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October 24, 2009How do you rate something like this?!?
It's very well written, and probably as objective as it's possible for anyone to be, considering the subject...
It's very well written, and probably as objective as it's possible for anyone to be, considering the subject...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews