Selected as a Book of the Year by the New York Times, Times Literary Supplement and The Times Despite his status as the most despised political figure in history, there have only been four serious biographies of Hitler since the 1930s. Even more surprisingly, his biographers have been more interested in his rise to power and his methods of leadership than in Hitler the person: some have even declared that the Fuhrer had no private life. Yet to render Hitler as a political animal with no personality to speak of, as a man of limited intelligence and poor social skills, fails to explain the...

Probably the most disturbing portrait of Hitler I have ever read' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday TimesBy the summer of 1939 Hitler was at the zenith of his power.

The great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig confided in his autobiography: “I have a pretty thorough knowledge of history, but never, to my recollection, has it produced such madness in such gigantic proportions.” He was referring to Germany in 1923, a “year of lunacy,” defined by hyperinflation, violence, a political system on the verge of collapse, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and separatist movements threatening to rip apart the German nation. Most observers found it miraculous that the Weimar Republic—the first German democracy—was able to survive, though some of the...

Democracies are fragile. Liberties that seemed won for all time can be squandered. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic, which resulted in the transfer of power to Hitler's Nazi Party. But this tragedy was not inevitable. In this gripping new book, celebrated historian Volker Ullrich charts the many lost alternatives and missed opportunities that contributed to German democracy's collapse. In an immersive style that takes us to the heart of political power, Ullrich argues that, right up until January 1933, history was open - and so too in the...