Hitler's Tyranny

A fresh and stimulating look at Hitler's dictatorship through the study of ten key historical aspects; This comprehensive work of history is not a biography but represents an alternative to the wealth of cradle-to-grave biographies available on the market, and it takes a thematic approach rather than giving a chronological account; Concise and accessible, Hitler's Tyranny is written with the general reader in mind; Unlike many previous biographies of Hitler (Kershaw, Goldhagen etc.), where a 'sociological' approach portrays him as the apotheosis of a specifically German strain of militarism and imperialism, Hitler's Tyranny shifts the focus firmly back on to the mindset and actions of the dictator himself.

A fresh and stimulating look at Hitler's dictatorship through the study of ten key historical aspects. The portrait that emerges is one of a murderous fantasist and political opportunist driven by an all-embracing ideology of racial superiority.Hitler's tyranny is still difficult to understand today. In this book, Ralf Georg Reuth examines ten aspects of this catastrophe. Among other things, he asks: Was anti-Semitism more pronounced in Germany than elsewhere? Was Versailles responsible for Hitler's rise, and why did the Germans follow a racial fanatic like him? How did his war differ from all others before it? The disturbing answers provide an overall picture that shows: Hitler was not just the consequence of German history, but the result of chance, deception, and seduction. This thought-provoking new study takes aim at several of the 'sacred cows' of Hitler scholarship from the past forty years. Reuth interrogates and challenges a range of orthodox views on such topics as how mainstream politicians facilitated Hitler's rise to power, the Fuhrer's infamous pact with Stalin, and the complicity of ordinary Germans in his genocidal tyranny. Eschewing a conventional chronological approach in favour of a forensic analysis of Adolf Hitler's mainsprings of action both as chancellor and military commander, Reuth portrays Hitler as the apotheosis of a specifically German strain of militarism and imperialism, shifting the focus firmly back on to the mindset and modus operandi of Hitler himself. The portrait that emerges is one of a murderous fantasist and political opportunist driven by an all-embracing ideology of racial superiority. Reuth's account courts controversy on a few points but offers a fascinating counterpoint to much recent scholarship.