Book Review Ian Kershaw – Hitler

IAN KERSHAW – HITLER ​

An enormously detailed 2000-page-volume ‘HITLER’ by Ian Kershaw is indeed among the best examples of military history studies. As mean to express respect to the author, I have made, as always, an enthusiastically detailed material on the first volume (1889-1936: Hubris). I invite you to deepen into Kershaw’s career and motivation, to examine correlation with previous classic Hitler’s biographies (Bullock, Fest, Maser, Hamann, Toland), to draw the lines on popular myths with I. Kershaw.

I hope this exhaustive book review would motivate you to invest time in reading. I would greatly appreciate your feedback. You may now find a ‘follow’ button within the article to stay in touch.

HITLER by Ian Kershaw: A detailed analysis of the book

 

BBC audio from 5th October 2000 (approx 45 mins): BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Hitler in History

"Hitler in History - In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how history has struggled to explain the enormity of the crimes committed in Germany under Adolf Hitler: we have had theories of ‘totalitarianism’, and of ‘distorted modernity’, debates between ‘intentionalists’ and their opponents the ‘structuralists’. The great political philosopher Hannah Arendt said, “Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think”. But somehow none of these explanations has seemed quite enough to explain how a democratic country in the heart of modern Europe was mobilised to commit genocide, and to fight a bitter war to the end against the world’s most powerful nations.With Ian Kershaw, historian and biographer of Hitler; Niall Ferguson, fellow and tutor in Modern History at Jesus College Oxford; Mary Fulbrook, Professor of German History at University College London."

 

I studied Modern German History under him at Sheffield University when I was a student there back in the early 1990's. It was quite intimidating attending his seminars, as you might imagine. I remember I was involved in a presentation of the functionalist v. intentionalist view of the holocaust. For some reason I was landed with defending the intentionalist view - Kershaw of course generally agrees with the "twisted road to Auschwitz" theory.

 

Thank you for this personal story. I have some visualizations, that one day I would shake the hands of the authors I respect and Kershaw is among these titans of history.

 

"The Rest is History" - Podcast...

63. Hitler, with Ian Kershaw - part 1

"He was “the embodiment of modern political evil” according to historian Sir Ian Kershaw. In this first episode of a two-part investigation of the Nazi dictator, Sir Ian joins Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland to discuss Adolf Hitler."

And...

64. Hitler, with Ian Kershaw - part 2

 

Superb book. I find the concept of " working towards the Fuhrer" as completely terrifying.

 

Another very informative work by Ian Kershaw is his "Making Friends with Hitler". It opens the lid on British aristocracy who embraced Hitler and his regime up to the outbreak of war in September 1939.

Lord Londonderry, who held the post of Air Minister during the early 1930s and a cousin of WSC was a champion of appeasement with a belief that there would no war with Germany and the threat of communism and the excessive influence of Jews would be curtailed. It was said that at his seat in NI there was a statuette of an SS member carrying a Nazi flag, a present from Ribbentrop who was Hitler's ambassador in London and the man who assured Hitler that he had friends in high places in London.

Ian Kershaw's account of French Resistance units in Southern France are a very good study of the struggle against the German occupier and Petain's puppet Vichy regime.