Portrait of the Monster as a Young Man: The Formative Years of Adolf Hitler
Alan Bullock This excerpt from Alan Bullock’s incomparable biography of Hitler covers his formative years, from his birth in 1889 to the end of the First World War in 1918. It sets the stage for Hitler’s later strategies and programs by explaining the sources of his ideas and the influences of his early life experiences. The greatest mistake in evaluating Hitler is to think of him simply as a madman. His ideas may have been perverse and his policies catastrophic, but they were clear products of his troubled youth.Incomparably authoritative, Bullock’s ' A Study in Tyranny' is an absorbing and readable account of one of history’s most extraordinary lives. It was immediately acclaimed throughout the world. H. R. Trevor-Roper, in the New York Times, called it “a remarkable achievement . . . comprehensive, clear, and well written.” William L. Shirer said it “will long remain, I believe, the definite and standard work on the subject.” ---Alan Bullock (1914–2004) was a distinguished British historian and well-known broadcaster. He grew up in the north of England and was trained as an historian at Oxford. From 1940 to 1945 he worked in the BBC’s European Service, acting as diplomatic correspondent during the latter part of the Second World War. He then became a fellow of the New College, and in 1952 was made Censor of St. Catherine’s. Among his other books are The Liberal Tradition and The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin; he also edited The Ribbentrop Memoirs.
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29 Pages