Customer Reviews

Hitler : A Study in Tyranny ( Harper Perennial Library, P 216)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In "Hitler: A Study in Tyranny," Alan Bullock stated that, as an author, he has no axe to grind. He adhered to that statement. Bullock offered a very balanced and plausible account of Hitler's life atempting to understand the dictator not as a demon but as a human being.

Readers interested in tantalizing controversy will be disappointed with this book. Bullock chose not to assert blame for such things as the Reichstag fire. Bullock dismissed the popular claim that Hitler changed his name from Schicklgruber (man, I got tired of my teachers reiterating that bit of misinformation) and the myth that Hitler resorted to astrology in decision-making. As for Geli Raubel, Bullock finds her best to be left as "a mystery." Bullock took a conservative stance in his analysis focusing only on the known fact's about Hitler's life.

Bullock offers a thorough study of Hitler's days in Vienna before the First World War and the ways in which this experience formed his political views. Hitler is presented not as the originator of future Nazi principles but as a product of the anti-rational, anti-intellectual, and anti-Semetic ideas that had been circulating in Europe for the previous hundred years. His understanding of propaganda, oratory skills, and pratical exposure to street politics helped Hitler gain a following. Ultimately, it was Hitler's determination that prompted him to turn down enticing offers of political position by Franz von Papen and Bruening that were less than what he sought: the Chancellory. During the Second World War, Hitler's "warlord" image was transformed: "the human being disappears, absorbed into the historical figure of the Fuehrer." Bullock also pointed out that this devotion to power led eventually to Hitler's downfall.

Although this book may be a little burdensome for pleasure reading (I doubt I will read it again), it is a very readable biography that would be appropriate for the college student who needs to learn places, events, etc. The lack of an index in this edition does pose a problem when one is trying to find information, however. Another criticism I have is its title "A Study in Tyranny." I was expecting the work to go more into an analysis of Hitler's tyrannical personality and the susceptibility of the German people to it. Maybe I was expecting a little psychology. This book, however, is a straight foward biography with not a lot of interpretation. The works of Ian Kershaw may be consulted if a reader wants more depth.

This was the best profile of Hitler when I read it forty years ago (it's only rival was Shirer's `Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'). Bullock skillfully explores Hitler's public and personal world in three sections (Party Leader, Chancellor, and War-Lord). Some of his surprising habits (non-smoker, vegetarian, and teetotaler) stand in contrast with the criminal war he launched and the innocents he killed.

`A Study in Tyranny' has since been supplemented with accounts by Fest, Kershaw, and several others, but Bullock remains well worth reading for those serious in the subject.

I really don't know how to rate this book since I am currently rereading the unabridged version which I was forced to obtain from Amazon.com.uk. It is an excellent work and I can not imagine why Americans are not permitted to order it from the US. Does Amazon US think Americans are too lazy to read the original? I would give it 5 stars if it were the unabridged version. I will never know what the abridged said or left out.

I'll be brief here because this is more of a warning than an admonition. Alan Bullock's Hitler: A Study Of Tyranny was, at the time of its release (let's cast all the way back into the 50's for that) quite imposing in its achievement: a lengthy, scholarly tome appraising Hitler, and for awhile the best Hitler biography out there (though I personally hold Konrad Heiden's 1944 (! ) The Fuhrer in high esteem, as do almost all modern Hitler biographers, who pay tribute to his impressive perceptiveness).

Now, however, this work has dated very badly, especially in its remarkably unsatisfactory portrait of the psychology of Hitler himself. To say, as Bullock does in this history, that Hitler was basically without an ideology is to make a mockery of his disturbing weltanschauung and to commit an enormous gaffe in apprehending his basic character. That's one of the most noticeable issues, but there are many lesser ones involving sourcing issues, mixed-up chronologies, and a simple lack of information (at this point, the Nazi archives were only just being sifted through).

I don't mean to impugn Bullock as a historian or a writer - his prose is perhaps less engaging that Joachim Fest's masterful style, but certainly never parochial or pedantic, and his historical errors and misjudgments are to be blamed more on a lack of information at the time than any laziness on his part - but this is NOT the place to go for a Hitler biography. Instead, go to Joachim Fest's Hitler (written in 1972, but still perhaps the single best long-form study of Hitler available, despite a lack of focus on the Holocaust), or Ian Kershaw's new series of works, the second of which should be due sometime soon. Bullock himself improved his Hitler biography immensely with his 1996 Hitler & Stalin, a work which sets the two leaders in parallel with each other to good effect. I'd recommend that one above this anyday, as it effectively represents a revision of his original views.

I first read this book the best part of fifty years ago.

It stands up remarkably well, even when read with a subsequent background of many books about World War II, several biographies of Hitler and other major war figures, plus smaller specialized studies.

This is not a full biography, Hitler's early years receiving fairly brief treatment. It is precisely what its subtitle says of it, a study in tyranny, and I don't believe another book offers quite the same intense exploration of the subject.

Allan Bullock writes as a genuine scholar, albeit an unusually articulate one. When Bullock is uncertain about the factors contributing to a certain event, he says so, along with giving readers a clear explanation of the alternatives. Bullock had studied the vast literature available in his time and little of substance escaped his analytical mind.

Hitler surely represents three extraordinary historical phenomena.

First, the outline of his rise is remarkable, almost unparalleled in history, rising from a tramp, would-be artist, a man with limited formal education, to become absolute leader of Europe's most important nation and then achieving a series of dazzling successes until megalomania struck, sending Europe into a ghastly spiral of horrors and destruction.

One of the few comparable rises I can think of is that of a man who shared none of Hitler's dark obsessions and hatreds: I refer to Lincoln, a man who rose from life in a dirt-floor cabin and a year and half of formal education to become a successful corporate lawyer, president of the United States, and leader of what remains America's bloodiest war.

Second, Hitler is, in a number of ways, the most important historical figure of the 20th century - not the greatest, not the most gifted, and certainly neither admirable nor heroic, but the most important as measured by his impact upon great events both in his own time and after.

Hitler's career contributed to the rise or success of some of the century's most able and heroic figures - Roosevelt, Churchill, and De Gaulle. And the gigantic destructive events Hitler unleashed profoundly affected the world to this day - the establishment of the Soviet empire, decades of Cold War, and the agonizing events following the creation of Israel.

Third, few people in all of history wielded such immense, unquestioned power over others as he did - Stalin, Napoleon, Henry VIII, Cromwell, Augustus, Genghis Khan, Attila, and a few others come to mind. Understanding the mind and methods of such a person is beyond question an important study of the human condition.

This is an essential book for students of history, statesmanship, World War II, politics, human character, and psychology. It is well enough written to hold the attention of those who are not scholars but interested in any of these subjects.

One of the most interesting qualities of Bullock's book is his avoidance of what has now become an almost de rigueur, politically correct minimizing of Hitler's skills and talents, very much a flaw in Ian Kershaw's biography, and preaching about his evil, something which is apparent just in telling the true history.

Bullock makes clear that in every relationship and project Hitler ever had, the need to be regarded as final authority was an intense, overwhelming psychological drive. He also clearly had developed something of a Messiah complex, something not unknown in our own day among politicians and religious leaders. His vision of Germany's expansion in the East was filled with ghastly concepts, yet the basic idea of a larger national landscape for Europe's most technically and perhaps culturally advanced nation, similar to the space claimed by the United States on its rise or by the British Empire, was rational if not ethical.

We know from well-regarded psychiatric studies that Hitler was not mentally ill, yet he did more damage than any mentally ill person I can think of. That fact alone makes understanding him immensely important and should serve as a continued warning concerning those who seek power in our societies. The all-too-common "Hitler the madman" is not helpful and shows no genuine learning from history.

True madmen have little chance of gaining serious power anywhere: they are eschewed by democracies where the least evidence of experience with mental problems is an absolute disqualifier and they are not supported in tyrannies because, as Bullock shows, a tyranny requires many insiders to make it work.

Indeed, one of the most important aspects of the Third Reich that Bullock so ably brings out was the endless creation of special fiefdoms to replace older fiefdoms and new offices for ambitious lieutenants to balance off against other ambitious lieutenants. It is for this reason that I believe all true tyrannies, at least in otherwise advanced states, are doomed not to last: they are actually far more unstable and inefficient than people generally realize.

If you are reading about the Third Reich, this is, quite simply, an indispensable book.

NOTE: I advise strongly reading the full text rather than this abridged edition.

The time this was written, early 60's, and the author together make it the most authentic writing I've seen. It's point of view is clear from the author's introduction, where he claims to only want to tell the story accurately as a way to stay true to his historian training. The result is a candid and intense reflection on the way a narrow genius can be used to bring down an entire society.
The circumstances of the time, where old royalty and private wealthy trusts wanted to use Hitler to regain their pre-WWI era control of Germany, made it easy for the gangsters that Hitler organized to double-cross them.
Read this and be warned that this could happen again, with the complicit help of groups and nations too naive to recognize raw ambition and moral depravation.

Bullock is one of the most well-known of Hitler's biographers, and that for a reason. The UNABRIDGED version of this book is, however, a much better choice and a more interesting read as well. Compared with others (Kershaw, Fest, Maser, etc) this abridged volume comes up short.

I studied this book in high school; this is a history book.

This is by no means a complete depiction of Hitler's life and generally focuses on historical events rather than Hitler the person.

If you don't know much about Hitler, I would recommend this book to you. You will learn a lot.

Unfortunately, there is not much information about the Holocaust.

Alan Bullock is one of the foremost biographers of Hitler. Unfortunately, when he wrote Study in Tyranny, few documents were available for him to write a complete work like his Hitler and Stalin. Bullock concentrates more on Germany as a whole instead of Hitler. Unlike his dual biography, Study in Tyranny has a tendency to bash his subject unnecessarily. Given the date of publication, Study in Tyranny is a good survey of Hitler and Germany before and during World War Two. Unfortunately compared to Joachim Fest's Hitler or Bullock's Hitler and Stalin, Study in Tyranny is lackluster but not due to Bullock's fault.

Contemporary readers may not be as impressed with this biography as they ought to be, as it has been so influential that its conclusions have been widely adopted by subsequent historians. As a result, this book should be read in conjunction with a more recent biography. However, keeping in mind how old the book is, it is still a classic, and Bullock's writing is a pleasure to read.