Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography
by John Toland
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Book Summary Information
Author: John TolandEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-01
ISBN: 0385420536
Number of pages: 1120
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography
Book Review: A Flawed Classic
Summary: 3 Stars
First the good:
1)This book is easy to read. The prose flows, and the story is engaging.
2)There are lots of notes, and the author lived early enough that he could interview some people from the era.
3)It is fairly detailed and comprehensive. You get a decent summary of who, what, how, and where.
Now the bad:
1)Toland writes things he could not possible know as fact. From the Triumph of the Will section, part 2: "It was not sex that Hitler sought from such charming women but the stimulation that his suppressed bohemian nature craved." He is writing as if Hitler is a fictional character and he is an omniscient author. And because of assertions like that one, his other less fantastical conclusions become suspect. How much is supposition cloaked as fact?
Toland also has an annoying habit of claiming to know what most Germans felt or believed. He claims knowledge of what Hitler meant to the nation as whole, and what motivated people. He offers no support except describing how people cheered at Hitler's speeches etc. This inside knowledge just doesn't ring true.
2) Toland's Hitler is sympathetic. Toland's Hitler is gentle, caring, and concerned about people around him, intellectually curious and intelligent. He is brave and stalwart. True he is also brutal and murdereous, but the main impression Toland gives is positive. He also attributes normal human emotions to Hitler such as love and friendship. Again, Toland presents conjecture as fact, such as Hitler's feelings towards Geli. I don't think you'll get an accurate picture of Hitler unless you read between the lines. I believe Hitler was a damaged man, probably from his alcoholic violent father and smothering mother. Nothing good ever comes from that combination of parental types (see Ed Gein for another outcome of the violent alky and smothering mother parental influence). So I just don't believe Hitler had normal emotional responses to people, situations, or himself. Trying to make him normal distorts who he was, which was a malignant narcissist who was a megalomaniac, with a false self image as a christ like saviour of his people which he held onto until the end. He also had the narcissists unshakable belief in his unerring rightness. Once he had figured things out, nothing and nobody would be able to change his mind. He also suffered from depressions, which happens to narcissists when they fail or their self image is revealed to be false. I also think at his core he was empty and that there was no real Hitler, just the persona he spent a life trying to live up to. None of the preceding is evident in Toland's work. Sure he has a few quotes that show the level of Hitler's narcissism and megalomania, but that never translates into a character analysis or deeper understanding of his actions.
So at the core, Toland's Hitler is too normal and too noble to be of much use overall. You don't feel you know Hitler after reading the 1300 pages, you just know about Hitler.
3)The suffering caused by Hitler is not mentioned or illustrated sufficiently. I think a good biography of Hitler should make the reader understand and feel for the Jews, Romanians, Slovaks, and regular Germans who were all victims of his boneheaded philosophy. By not doing that, Hitler's actions lose much of their gravitas and immorality and the story becomes abstracted.
4)His description of Hitler leaves out a lot of the criminality. For instance, the hundreds (possibly thousands) of politcally motivated murders from 1923 to 1933 perpetrated by Nazis and ordered by Hitler during his rise to power are not mentioned, nor are the murders of journos. If you just went by Toland, you'd think the Nazis played mostly by the rules as they sought votes. Hitler is seen as a politician, not (as one of the Poison Kitchen called him) a political criminal and gangster.
In summary, I'd recommend this book as being a good readable overview, but I would caution that it doesn't do a good job at illuminating Hitler's psyche nor conveying the pain he inflicted on millions or his constant evil criminality.
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