|
|
|
Average Customer Review
Share your thoughts with other customers
|
|
|
› See most helpful viewpoints
|
|
42 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting book,, February 16, 2004
By A Customer
Adolf Hitler was probably one of the most successful leaders in History, and I'm talking about before the war. Before the war, he managed to bring back an economically desolate Germany and instill a sense of nationalism in ALL GERMANS (yes, even jewish germans). In fact, he completed such a huge feat that he was Time Magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.But this book shows what we all came to realize later. Though he was a genius politician and an excellent leader, Hitler had his issues. Emotional issues and mental issues warped him brutally. Read this book to understand the war. And I think Hitler is evil. I'm not defending him in the above paragraph. But you have to realize that he was a wonderful leader for a period of time. Then he crossed that line and spiralled into madness. This book will help you understand that madness.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
34 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
Grow Up People, June 13, 2005
Amazon has set up this feature so that the book in question may be reviewed. This is not your shrink's couch.
Having reviewed the reviews, I have to say that most of them are not helpful at all. First I read about how Mein Kampf accurately portrays the horrors of socialism, which -- as any educated person would know -- is complete nonsense. (For the reviewer who wrote that: You should know that Nazi Germany is the quintessential example of a RIGHTIST dictatorship.)
And then, I just read just emotional reactions to the Holocaust. Thanks, I'm sure we're all very well aware of how horrific the Jewish Holocaust was. But if you haven't even read the book, why the hell are you "reviewing it"??
*SIGHS* Now, to the book itself:
I know any review of Mein Kampf is a blatant redundancy. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this work for the understanding of one of the most unsettling and significant political and sociological phenomena of recent history.
A crucial read to any student of poli sci, as well as psych and sociology.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
20 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
Important historical document, September 19, 2003
By A Customer
Many people would like to ban this book, Germany has already done it. Personally I think that banning words is the worst way of dealing with history. People need to read, they need to learn how to think: and one shuld prevent a book's attraction to rise, which does seem to happen, just as result of banning it in the first place.
Read this book, take it as a historic document, build your own opinion. There is no good and evil in ths world, but there are prejudices and ways that lead to distruction of parts of humanity, which can only be a loss. Looking back into history, we know what this book has caused. In order to prevent such a history from happening again, we all need to read this book in to recognize a similar handwriting in our future.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
Read it- And You'll Never Feel Clean Again, February 6, 2004
The five stars are not for quality of content or ideas. The book itself is a stylistic nightmare, full of self-indulgent, raw rage. As any rational human knows (hopefully) the ideas are insane and poisonous. I could NEVER read it from cover to cover. The sole value of this book is that it's a window into the mind of a madman.
If you read Mein Kampf, you'll wonder how anyone could have followed someone who was obviously insane. The content of Hitler's ideas would be laughable, if not for the fact that people did take this stuff seriously. His ramblings are full of raw, angry, verbose garbage that force a rational person to cringe. At one time there were people who thought that his ideas were great. And there are the few who still do, a fact which is frightening to anyone capable of logical thinking. Mein Kampf is a journey into a deluded, twisted mind, a journey that isn't exacly enjoyable. It is, however, necessary to understand the depths to which humans can sink.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
45 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
DEMOCRACY DEFINED!, April 21, 2004
By A Customer
This book is a MUST READ for anyone wanting to know why US politics is the way it is! Reading Hitler describe the world he lived in before getting to power, is like reading about the United States as it is today. The way he speaks about how he wanted to pull his hair out when watching the Parliment in action, is how I feel when watching our congress on C-span.Hitler's eloquent use of vocabulary and great analogies make reading this book take a long time, because I found myself stoping after every great statement, and thinking about it, then seeing how it fit our world today, and realizing why it is in the shape it is in today. It also explains why no third party candidates are allowed to speak in the presidential debates, apparently the US government has read this book too. I thought I was going to be reading a book of propaganda, as told by so many people (who never read the book themselves) but it turned out to be a great book on the philosophy of life and politics, that has not gone out of date, it fits in perfectly to describe the world exactly as it is today! This should be required reading in schools.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Good for my purpose, October 10, 2005
Okay I had no interest in reading this book at first. I read Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto for a world governments course that I am currently enrolled in for college. I really don't agree with many of the opinions voiced in either book, but I take them at face value. Weather you agree with Hitler or not he was able to control the masses. My purpose for reading the book was to understand the man. The "method to the madness" if you will. Reading this book helped me to understand where he was comming from with some of his ideals. I don't agree with him, but atleast now I understand it. There's really no since in bashing something you know nothing about. I'm not saying that you should follow the "teachings" in this book. I'm only saying that you need to know what you are talking about if you are gonna bash something.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
Know your enemy, December 6, 2003
It's always good to know and recognize the roots of fascism so that you can nip it early. We have with this book a historical model that we can use to recognize such charismatic maniacs we when encounter them.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!, October 16, 2005
I was so tired of reading all the ignorant reviews of this book that I had to share my point of view. First off, political views aren't grounds to deffecate on a book that is a first hand account delving into THE MOST BRILLIANT AND SADISTIC MIND the world has ever known! What else could you want in a reading. haha Hitler Liberal? Someone can actual fathom the thought of someone that wants to control everything as liberal? Are you serious? L. Boyles Sir I think you might have your facts messed up, because she meant that they were a right wing organization because they like to control anything and everything, from Newspapers to peoples choices, IE look at the US government right now trying to make womens choices for them by trying to make it illegal to be prochoice.
Back to the book already! It's nothing short of incredible. I think everyone from any background or race should read this book. It's just great. You have to understand that to respect and actually enjoy this book you don't have to AGREE WITH IT! I'm no nazi, I'm no racist, I'm simply a man with an open mind and open eyes.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
15 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
to the many great linguists, April 7, 2005
so i hear somebody criticize Hitler's grammar:
"He who has not himself been gripped in the clutches of this strangulating viper will never know its poisoned fangs."... A viper has no clutches, and a snake which can coil itself around a human being has no poison fangs. Moreover, if a person is strangled by a snake, he never comes to know his fangs."
First off, the usage of clutch doesn't limit to visually manisfested analogies, one says the clutch of evil, that doesn't mean evil really have a physical clutch. The meaning sensed here in entrapment, and that can be attained with whatever part of the body of the perpetrator.
Secondly, a unilinguist must bear in mind that words work differently in different languages. For example, in Thai the creature "python" is not a "snake," nor are pythons a subset of snakes. Such is the same case in many other languages, like Vietnamese, Korean, and German. Only pythons wrap around its victims "like coils," but again, pythons have no teeth and must swallow its victim in her entirety. Thus the usage of snake here in its technical definition does not strictly violate any physical interpretations, for in English, snakes can mean "strict" snakes that do not coil, or pythons. However the matter is more subtle in other languages, and such an error can only be revealed by people educated in the field of science. That being said, same is the problem with the American public, as we all know how the image of snakes is revealed through Disney animations: they coil, wave their tongue magically, and have sharp teeth. No American parent ever seems to see a problem with George of the jungle teaching American kids the wrong appearance of Nature.
3. Thirdly, who said that err, inconsistency, illogicality, and ridiculality (please note i'm being ironic) are not forms of art? Dadaists, who would be thought of as crazy by the present American culture, used to be the fashion of Europe. It was the post WWII period, the time when people saw beauty, perfection and logic as absurd, due to the contrast with the destruction that Europe was facing. Thus they seek new ways to redefine arts to better correspond to the visual world, and dadadism was formed, by cutting up random words from random pages and reconnecting them randomly to make phrases, paragraphs, and books. Another example: electronic music, a stark contrast to the sickly pretentious pop culture that drugs our teens (and mind me, the majority of our adults) today, was once in fashion right in the heart of America, and was even featured in popular films, such as The Forbidden Planet. And why? Because the explosive technological advancement at that time has allowed scientists, engineers and artists to burst out screaming creativity, to defy physical and physiological boundaries and make new, instead of observe old, horizons, and to redefine what is good, correct, and more importantly, allowed. The American crowd, submerged in the same process, took the change heartily, for a while at least.
4. Forthly, if George W. Bush were to publish a book right now, how many percents of the American public would stop reading this post and drive off to get the first prints?? More than enough. The question is, will this book be grammatically correct?? Of course. But then it is no longer written by Bush is it? And this is where the dilemma lies: do you want to see the person, or do you want to see someone else as whom the person wants you to see him?
So you book-worms out there, take this book and read it hungrily. Let neither grammars nor vocabulatory defects bother your enjoyment of art. Let the personality of the Fuhrer engulf you in estranged closeness, instead of endeavoring to score it against the disgusting standard of today. Let every word, or the lack thereof, create joy and fascination, hatred and marvel, for the last gasps of Kierkegaard reads: "Sweep me up!" and so is what you ought to experience before you depart, rather unexpectedly, from this otherwise pointless existence.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
21 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
In A Literary Sense It's Junk, February 25, 2004
Hitler, although extremely evil, was possibly one of the best orators of all time. He could move crowds like no one else with his powerful speeches and yet virtually nothing he said is still quoted today. Why? Because it was not what Hitler said, but rather how he said it. Do not buy Mein Kampf if you want an entertaining, well written read; rather buy this book for its historical significance. Were this book written by some other unknown man the ramblings about racial purity and Jews as parasitic sub humans would enthrall very few and put most to sleep. However for those interested in how Hitler's mind worked there can be no better direct example than his book, but in literary quality two stars is very generous.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
|
|
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (Paperback - June 15, 2006)
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
