Hitler eBook Norman Stone
Download As PDF : Hitler eBook Norman Stone 
This biography looks beneath the usual assessment of Adolf Hitler the monster, digging deeper into his life and examining his successes alongside his many failings. Through his meticulous research and illuminating writing, Stone reveals a man who was surprisingly human not the clear-sighted decisive leader he seemed, but rather plagued by doubt and often uncertain about his next course of action.
Hitler eBook Norman Stone
Elegant, thought provoking and full of wit. Even edgy in places. Having plowed through many books on Hitler and this period of European history, this is by far the best. And the shortest, which is a double virtue.Product details
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Hitler eBook Norman Stone Reviews
This was a very exciting book. I found out about what Hitler was doing during Wold War 2. I never knew. Also, i found out about his life. If i were you, i would read this book definatly.
I picked up this edition in the UK in the 1980s, after seeing Norman Stone at a lecture in London University. This slender volume got kicked around and transferred in my library over the years but I never read it until now. I had read the usual suspects on Hitlers life, Bullock, Fest, (even Toland) and other tangential works such as Shirer and the more recent works of Richard Evans. It just seemed this little volume did not have enough heft to call me to it for a read...
So after reading about 18 months on Asian history and ruminating on the latest victory of Donald Trump, I found myself down in a smaller part of my library late at night and sat down and picked this up. I was immediately engaged. The style was engaging, witty and thoroughly the domain of an Scottish intellect with the gift of story telling. Unlike massive tomes on Hitler, Stones prose are those of a person who knowing their subject well is given full vent and you sit in awe of his particular interpretation of this particularly baleful character. Stone's interpretation is not so much different from that what we know, but there is a grudging acceptance that Hitler was man met perfect for his time - a deft political orator at a time standing out against others - matched perfectly with a disaffected people looking for a scapegoat. Dressed usually in an attire that made him look part pimp and part taxi driver Hitler was able nonetheless to capture the imagination of the times. Stone seems to adhere to the traditional interpretation that "Hitler came to power by democratic means" - this is in fact not so since as Richard Evans in his latest work in particular and many (largely German) historians have shown that contempt for democratic procedure and political intimidation and murder were widespread even under the Weimar republic. Hitler just developed this more thoroughly.
But if Hitler was able to use his political intuition to come to power he owed little to his personal talent in winning his initial victories which came more as gifts of military stupidity from the western powers and the Soviet Union. His downfall was however only assured when he insisted in control freak compulsion to direct the military.
Stone's book was refreshing and also made it plain how much history differs all the time and never repeats. How much Donald Trump is a product of his own times and how he is not. Hitler organised grand spectacles with military regimentation, Trump is off-the cuff, extemporous in demagoguery. Hitler channeled unhappiness towards the Jews, international capital, and democracy. Trump channeled facile notions of internet democracy - the notion that all opinions are equal regardless of fact, against disliked elites and societal pillars. He did not speak well and there was little precision. Hitler destroyed the rule of law, democracy and the state. Trump questioned the legitimacy of the state, and democracy, and the US constitution -- the US has still the rule of law to keep him in his place... so far ...
People typically fall all over themselves to claim they are not elitists.. Hitler and Trump, though different show what happens when grass roots democracy equates all opinions as equal, all institutions morally equivalent. That Julian Assange, the ultimate internet underwear freedom fighter symbol of mass democracy aligns with Trump? That science is somehow compatible with inane 9/11 Truth conspiracies? That people such as Alex Jones are taken seriously by parts of American society. That good learning, the western cannon, no longer seems to have sway over the bitter venom of people's anger.
That grassroot mass populism eventually strangles themselves when they align with a demigod. Hopefully democracy in American offers a path out of the present morass.
Trump and Hitler are cautionary tales. Stone in his 1979 work has reminded me in 2016 that there are bad politicians but there are also bad masses, ready and willing, waiting to be used.
Elegant, thought provoking and full of wit. Even edgy in places. Having plowed through many books on Hitler and this period of European history, this is by far the best. And the shortest, which is a double virtue.
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