This book was written under commission from the war effort as an attempt by a psychiatrist to try to shed some light from the sparse knowledge that was available about Hitler, his background and his early years. Unlike the scruples that MD's tipically have when expressing clinical views about their experience and their patients, the war effort justified some daring and what would seem today wild projections from sparse and fragmented data. Notwithstanding, history as later evolved lent credence to Dr. Langer's findings and this book is a fascinating exploration of the very soul of a troubled mind that explains some very obscure attitudes and reactions of its subject.

I'm somewhat of an history buff, especially WWII, but when my Mom bought me this book at a yard sale, I didn't know what I was in store for upon reading it. There are lots of little known facts about Hitler's secrets and his personal life. We get a glimpse inside of Hitler's head to see what makes him tick - it wasn't just his hatred of the Jews that drove him. The book was just a conglomeration of interesting information, and contains many rare photos. If you like reading about Hitler or similar topics, this book is worth buying.

This book was soo interesting!!! I would recomend it to everyone who's ever thought, "Jee, I wonder why Hitler was the way he was." I can now truley understand why Hitler killed 11 million people. (I don't agree, of coarse, but I understand why he did it.) It tells all about his childhood, personal life, and later military life. I couldn't put it down, and I am going to start reading it for a second time. This is definatly worth buying. -Kelly

I would not recommend this book to the general public. There is very, very little in it about direct experiences in Nazi Germany. So much of the book has almost nothing to do with Nazi Germany and is about her family and personal relationships and about her professional development instead. These were interesting and well written but not particularly enlightening or thought-provoking. The last 80 pages I found mostly pretty boring as they went into details of her research and her analyses of WWII and Nazi Germany and prejudice against the Jews. I cannot comment on her research, but what she said about the war, etc. I found unenlightening. I think that this is a nice book for her children and her children's children to have, but for me, I felt let down when I came to the end. As a side note, I found it amusing that she wrote down so much about the delicious meals she enjoyed here and there. This was true in Heck's book "Child of Hitler" also. The bombs may be dropping around, but boy, the pickled herring was yummy! (to exaggerate my point). If you are just interested in the musings of and a slice of the life of an intelligent prominent psychologist, then by all means, read this book.

Author Anneliese Korner-Kalman who happened to grow up across the street from Hitler's private residence describes her terrifying face to face encounters with Hitler and her ultimate summons to appear before the Gestapo.

The book describes an extraordinarily courageous woman. For example, when she rode her bike through a narrow roundabout, Hitler's convertible pulled up next to her, and SS officers in a second car, screamed at her to greet the Führer, an order she stubbornly defied. After her panicked parents sent her to Switzerland, she risked her life, guiding Austrian refugees to safety in France.

Once in Switzerland, Professor Piaget invited her to become a student at the University of Geneva. Her studies there laid the foundation for her ultimately becoming a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine where, in a 35-year research career, she studied newborn babies. She was one of the first to discover innate newborn behavioral differences,
long before the more recent interest in genetics.

Her pioneering research brought her back to Munich because German colleagues persuaded her to present her findings there. During her stay, she relived her painful childhood and the Nazi era.

While her book is captivating from beginning to end, I was especially impressed by her insightful historical reflections. For instance, she deduced that long before WW II began, Hitler's first and foremost goal was to conquer Russia. She also described how the Nazi Holocaust differed from other genocides in motives, methods and circumstances.

This is an important book, well written and wise. It is very timely, considering the current wave of anti-Semitism all over the world. I highly recommend this book, particularly for discussion groups and book clubs.

Professor Gordon's work on the Hitler Putsch is excellent. It is a pioneering study on the event which taught Hitler the invaluable lesson of gaining political power through legitimate means. The book is the basis from which all other works on the subject are judged. Its only notable flaws are an over-emphasis on the role of moderate right-wing groups, a tedious account of the events of November 8 and 9, 1923, and a lack of attention to the role of the ensuing trial in making Hitler an internationally known figure.

This book discusses the Putsch, and all political and paramilitary organizations active in Munich at the time. Its primary emphasis is on the moderate right wing groups affiliated with the Weimar Republic, such as Bund Bayern und Reich, making the title sort of a misnomer. It also has a detailed discussion of all events during the Putsch, such as comments people were yelling in the Burgerbraukellar when the Putsch started, and a map showing the route marched from the Burgerbraukellar to the Feldherrnhalle.

This is a great book for "amateur historians" who want to deepen their understanding of WWII, Hitler, and the German War Machine.

This review of Hitler's management of German battle campaigns during WWII is very interesting. The overriding aim of this work is to present and evaluate Hitler's prowess as a military leader.

I especially enjoyed the frequent references to the thoughts, criticisms,and concerns of the Generals who worked alongside the Fuhrer. Also found the presentation of Hitler's War Directives to be enlightening, as well as relevant to the discussion at hand.

This shorter book is a must read for anyone who has an interest in the "nuts and bolts" of WWII.

As an aside, I agree with the other reviewer who stated that the author seems to assume that the reader has a deep knowledge of the Campaigns. Yet this limitation doesn't prevent the reader from extracting a great deal of knowledge on Hitler's strengths and weaknesseses as a War Leader.

Readers are encouraged to check out the Time-Life (thin) books series on the Third Reich in WWII. Lots of great narrative and pictures on weapons,ships/Uboats,campaigns,politics,propaganda,etc. (I have no connection whatsover to that outfit....)

This book is among the best of the WWII books I have read, and I have read quite a few. As an amatuer WWII historian (hey, I'm 19, but I've done a lot of reading), I had my own thoughts about Hitler as a military commander. I saw this book on sale and bought it without hesitation and I think it is one of the best buys I have made. Strawson makes a complete analysis of every front of the European theater. He analyzes the strategy of not only Hitler, but also those of the French, British, Russian, and American army commanders. Why the strategies succeeded, and why they failed. He quotes and comments on Hitler's War Directives. All in all, a very good argument is made, and I agree with most of it. Strawson also gave me some new ideas and thoughts. My only complaint (and the only reason it got 4 stars instead of 5) is that Srawson assumes a certain level of intimacy with the historical data surrounding the War. I was familiar with most of it, but I needed some refreshment with the names and places of the less famous battles (the Balkan campaign comes to mind). But, despite this, Strawson has a very good work here, and it is a shame it is out of print.

Clearly a rough draft done about 1928. Rambling. Tends to put one asleep. Obsessively goes on about the South Tyrol German minority in Italy trying to defuse it as a German domestic political issue. Useful in illuminating geopolitical views and directions regarding France, Italy, Russia and his later to be proven erroneous evaluation of England. Obsessed with a nations daily bread and need for lebensraum, the source of which was to be the East. Must have been a nightmare to have to listen to him.

Having read Hitler's most celebrated tract, "Mein Kampf" twice, I was extremely pleased to discover the lesser known piece by this author (actually written before his association with his latter days adie-de-camp, and brutal editor, Rudolf Hess) and found the style much more contiguous, the structure less choppy and the content wholly logical and reasonable to digest. Truly worth reading in order to better understand the ideology and character (and person) of perhaps the most maligned intellect of modern history.

Hoyt presents an engaging albeit superflous view of the Fuhrer's war. He effectively and interestingly narrates the history of the Third Reich from birth to death. Not an in depth study, but an excellent beginning.

An accomplished and highly respected historian in the field of World War II studies, Edwin P. Hoyt offers military buffs new insight to Adolf Hitler's leadership as commander-in-chief of Germany's armed forces in Hitler's War. From Hitler's early successes in Austria and Czechoslovakia, to his later failures in Russia and Normandy, we are treated to a cogent and informed analysis of the Fuhrer's motives, relationships with his generals, and the errors in judgement that were to collapse the German armed forces into total defeat on all fronts. Hoyt reveals that Hitler's skill in manipulating his officers and the German public was ultimate undermined by his obsession with exterminating the Jews and communists and set Germany on the irreversible road to defeat from 1942 onward....

Hitler was a madman. Look at his face in the photographs in this book. Pictures don't lie. How could this madman fool a whole nation? To think how one man could change the world is beyond belief for my generation.

This book was meant as a supplement to John Toland's biography of Hitler. It contains 465 photographs, 11 of them in full color. It is hard to describe the pictures to you. Some are candid shots and others are exquisitely staged. They pretty much line up in chronological order and they also show the people that were on Hitler's periphery. Photograph 155 is the next day Hindenburg died. Photograph 176 shows Bormann at the wheel with a Frau Hess. Photograph 228 a member of Sir Oswald Mosley's black shirt is with the brown shirts.

We could go on forever however let me say the photographs cover the time from 1899 through 1944. Many of these pictures are not seen in newsreels.

This book has been misnamed. Although 80% of the book presents an interesting review of Hitler's views of art and the steps he took as "Fuehrer" to make all of German art conform to his view, the 10% that gives a psychological analysis refers little to his view of art. Rather, it gives an analysis based on the Adlerian psychoanalytic theory. However, this is most fascinating, especially as most psychological analyses of Hitler are based on Freud's theories. This is definitely a book worth reading.

If you were so inclined to get a complete and accurate (as much as possible) telling of the last few weeks in the bunker with Hitler then I would suggest this book and 'The Bunker'. Both tell the story but The Bunker came out about 25 years ago and this book is somewhat new. They, therefore, has some different takes on this information that was available at the time of the writing. For the true World War 2 die-hard this presents an interesting opportunity to read through the two books and find the differences.

Overall the book is primarily a retelling of The Bunker with a few new items tossed in. The writing is not bad and the author has been able to spice it up with some suspense and action here and there. The book is dark as there is nor way to make this subject matter anything but, so do not expect the feel good hit of the year. This is an interesting book and if you are interested in the topic or want to know more this is not a bad buy.

This book uncovers a wealth of Soviet information concerning the last hours of Adolf Hitler and what happened to his body. Not only is good, convincing data provided but rare photos of Hitler's body but also even one of Blondi (Hitler's dog whom was a guinea pig in a cynide effectiveness experiment). The book's only drawback was the author's over-the-top Soviet disposition and inclinations. However, this book is well worth the time of those who are history buffs or those who just want to know exactly what happened in Hitler's bunker.