The `Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich - Hardcover

Kershaw, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198219644 ISBN 13: 9780198219644

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1987

Synopsis

The personality of Hitler himself can hardly explain his immense hold over the German people. This study, a revised version of a book previously published in Germany under the title Der Hitler-Mythos: Volksmeinung und Propaganda im Dritten Reich, examines how the Nazis, experts in propaganda, accomplished the virtual deification of the Führer. Based largely on the reports of government officials, party agencies, and political opponents, Dr Kershaw charts the creation, growth, and decline of the 'Hitler Myth'.

About this title

Review

Before writing Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris the first volume of his substantial biography of Adolf Hitler, Ian Kershaw focused on the popular appeal of the Nazi dictator in The Hitler Myth. Arguing that "the sources of Hitler's appeal must be sought...in those who adored him, rather than in the leader himself," Kershaw shows how Hitler's public image welded together antagonistic forces within the Nazi state, mobilised the nation for war, and contributed to the ethos that animated systematic and genocidal violence.

Responding to historians who maintain that Hitler's personality or ideological fixations accounted for his broad acceptance, Kershaw argues that, in the early 1930s a sizeable plurality of Germans hungered for an omnipotent Führer to stand above the political disharmonies of the Weimar state. Later, foriegn policy and military victories attracted many more to the Hitler legend. However, victories were the price for popularity; and Hitler became more and more bloodthirsty as both his image and regime foundered under the blows of the Allied powers. The Hitler myth, then--a cultural phenomenon the Reich Minister Joeseph Goebbels claimed as his greatest propaganda triumph--became a fundamental cause for the collapse of the Nazi State.

Kershaw's authoritative history of political culture in Hitler's Germany forcefully demonstrates that the Führer's popularity rested less on "bizarre and arcane precepts of Nazi ideology, than on social and political values...recognisable in many societies other than the Third Reich." In our present political environment, which repeatedly features outcries for "leadership" from pundits and public servants alike, the disturbing lessons of The Hitler Myth are an urgent warning. --James Highfill

Review

'a book which should be read by everyone interested in the history of 20th-century Europe. Together, Kershaw's two monographs [The Hitler Myth and Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich] provide perhaps the most revealing study available of popular opinion in Nazi Germany.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

'Professor Kershaw's book is not only important for an understanding of the Third Reich, but it underlines the dangers inherent in modern political image-building and in the temptation to succumb to charismatic forms of leadership in times of crisis.' Times Literary Supplement

'Much of what Kershaw has been known for some time ... The value of his present book is that his information is now presented comprehensively and chronologically ... It also encompasses many aspects of the subject not previously known.' History

'Kershaw writes with clarity, imagination and authority.' Catherine Merridale, Journal of European Studies

'a very useful book to have on the shelf, especially for an English-language readership' Michael H. Kater, York University, Toronto, The English Historical Review

'immensely readable study ... The value of his present book is that this information is now presented comprehensively and chronologically from the 1920s through to the dark days of defeat in 1945.' John P. Fox, International Affairs

'Kershaw's is an immensely readable study' John P. Fox, Jewish Chronicle

'based on very detailed research ... As well as adding to our understanding of the rise of Hitler, this book demonstrates the success of techniques for marketing a political image.' Sunday Times

'Kershaw's is an immensely readable study of how the German people and Nazi Germany received and reacted to the "Hitler myth" propagated by the Nazi party.' John P. Fox, Jewish Chronicle

'a brilliant exploration of the success of the Nazi propaganda machine' Keith Brace, Birmingham Post

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198219644
• ISBN 13: 9780198219644
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312