Hitler, Volker Ullrich
Hitler, Volker Ullrich
31 Rating(s)
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Hitler
Ascent 1889-1939

Bestseller

Author: Volker Ullrich

Narrator: Don Hagen

Unabridged: 34 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 09/01/2016


Synopsis

A major new biography—an extraordinary, penetrating study of the man who has become the personification of evil.

For all the literature about Adolf Hitler there have been just four seminal biographies; this is the fifth, a landmark work that sheds important new light on Hitler himself. Drawing on previously unseen papers and a wealth of recent scholarly research, Volker Ullrich reveals the man behind the public persona, from Hitler's childhood to his failures as a young man in Vienna to his experiences during the First World War to his rise as a far-right party leader. Ullrich deftly captures Hitler's intelligence, instinctive grasp of politics, and gift for oratory as well as his megalomania, deep insecurity, and repulsive worldview.

Many previous biographies have focused on the larger social conditions that explain the rise of the Third Reich. Ullrich gives us a comprehensive portrait of a postwar Germany humiliated by defeat, wracked by political crisis, and starved by an economic depression, but his real gift is to show vividly how Hitler used his ruthlessness and political talent to shape the Nazi party and lead it to power. For decades the world has tried to grasp how Hitler was possible. By focusing on the man at the center of it all, on how he experienced his world, formed his political beliefs, and wielded power, this riveting biography brings us closer than ever to the answer.

Translated from the German by Jefferson Chase.

About Volker Ullrich

Volker Ullrich is a prize-winning historian and the author of Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939, Hitler: Downfall, 1939-1945, and Eight Days in May: The Final Collapse of the Third Reich. He lives in Hamburg.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on December 07, 2019

I cannot find any fault with Volker Ullrich's Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939. It is articulate, heavily researched, fearless in challenging long-held assumptions with historical facts and overall just a terrifying pleasure to read. Note that in the last volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle, there i......more

Goodreads review by Maru on September 24, 2024

UPDATE 8 YEARS ON: Trump says that if he loses the election it will be the fault of the Jews and promises that in his mass deportation program he will issue serial numbers to all deportees. Exactly how this serial number could be matched permanently to the deportee to prevent their re-entry is not s......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on October 03, 2023

The March of Madness. German historian Volker Ullrich has produced an exceptional piece of work with this first of two volumes on one of the most evil and fascinating figures of the twentieth century; Adolf Hitler. Ullrich, in his introduction notes that writing a book on Hitler is extremely difficul......more

Goodreads review by Chris on April 03, 2021

Thank goodness I listened to this first volume of Volker Ullrich's massive biography of Hitler in 2021 and not 2020 or 2019. It chronicles Hitler's rise to power and I think my head would have exploded had I read it earlier.......more

Goodreads review by Wulf on April 18, 2023

Mein Leben lang versuche ich bereits, wenngleich auch nicht zu verstehen, so doch zumindest nachzuvollziehen, wie Hitler und seine NSDAP in Deutschland an die Macht kommen konnten - wie konnte ein verkrachter “Kunstmaler” zum Diktator werden? Wie konnte ein Bierkeller-Agitator Millionen in seinen Ba......more