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Why Hitler? The Genesis of the Nazi Reich
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Book Code: C5485
ISBN: 0-275-95485-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-95485-7
232 pages, photographs, tables
Praeger Trade
Publication: 11/30/1996
List Price: $36.95 (UK Sterling Price: £21.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • [A] short, well-written, thoughtful account of why and how HItler and the Nazis could have come to power in a Western democracy such as Germany...Beginning with the end of World War I, [Mitcham] draws upon established historical research to cover the social, political, military, economic, and personal forces that contributed to Hitler's rise to power. His short account distills a huge literature into a readable study that covers the main themes effectively and understandably...valuable insights for any library collection that includes European history...

    Library Journal
  • Few authors have provided as much biographical information on even minor personalities of the Weimer Republic and the Nazi movement in one monograph; this detail adds depth to the account and is the book's major strength....Despite all its detail, the book reads well.
    —German Studies Review
Description: How did an Austrian tramp named Adolf Hitler become chancellor of Germany, in a position to launch the most infamous reign of terror experienced in the 20th century? Why Hitler? explains the Nazi rise to power in captivating prose and uncompromising detail. Why Hitler focuses on the issue of why and how Hitler and his party attained power in Germany, a question asked by all reflective Americans. Author Samuel Mitcham presents new information, dispensing with the hackneyed theory--presented by Hitler in Mein Kampf and repeated by historians as illustrious as William Shirer and Alan Bullock--that the heroic young Fuehrer struggled to survive against poverty and incredible odds, working as a day laborer and living in a flop house, hunger his constant companion. In fact, Hitler's income from his father's pension was higher than that of a junior postal employee, a teacher with less than five years' service, or a court lawyer with one year's salary. Hitler attained power in 1933 as the result of a complex set of factors, including the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I; the German's lack of faith in democracy and the reasons behind it; the corruption and mismanagement which characterized the Weimar Republic; the hyperinflation of the early 1920s, during which the German currency lost 99.3% of its value in just 12 weeks and the cost of eggs soared to 80 billion marks each; the Great Depression, during which nearly a quarter of the German work force was unemployed; the political and economic instability of the times, in which the Nazis thrived; and the evil genius of Adolf Hitler, master politician. Why Hitler? transports the reader back to the Germany of the 1920s and 1930s, to a time when a country and a civilization began its apocalyptic descent.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • The Fall of the Second Reich
  • The Friekorps and the War After the War
  • The Treaty of Versailles
  • Enter Adolf Hitler
  • Street Violence and Inflation
  • The Beer Hall Putsch
  • Political Stability and the Nazi Party's Slow Growth Period, 1924-1929
  • The Great Depression and Political Chaos
  • The Suicide of Geli Raubal
  • Continuous Electioneering and "Cattle Trading"
  • Hitler Achieves His Goal
  • Bibliography
  • Index
LC Card Number: 96-16246
LCC Class: DD238
Dewey Class: 943
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