Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Straight Forward, Comprehensive Study, October 4, 2001
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.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Extremely dated and at times inaccurate: He's bettered this, April 26, 2000
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.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hitler, A Study In Tyranny, September 13, 2004
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.
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