Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany - Hardcover

Ohler, Norman

9780241256992: Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241256992 ISBN 13: 9780241256992

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2016

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GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016

'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow

'Blitzed is making me rethink everything I've ever seen and read about WWII... terrific!' Douglas Coupland

'A huge contribution... remarkable' Antony Beevor, BBC RADIO 4

'Extremely interesting ... a serious piece of scholarship, very well researched' Ian Kershaw

The sensational German bestseller on the overwhelming role of drug-taking in the Third Reich, from Hitler to housewives.

The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.

The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making, with Hitler and his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.

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Review

German writer Norman Ohler's astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the second world war .. Blitzed looks set to reframe the way certain aspects of the Third Reich will be viewed in the future (Rachel Cooke Guardian)

A huge contribution... remarkable (Antony Beevor BBC RADIO 4)

Blitzed is making me rethink everything I've ever seen and read about WWII. It emotionally and technically makes sense of previously unexplainable aspects of that war. It makes me want to revisit other books on it with the hindsight of knowing these newly exposed truths. It was terrific! (Douglas Coupland)

The picture he paints is both a powerful and an extreme one... gripping reading (Anna Katharina Schaffner Times Literary Supplement)

Remarkable... energetic... retells the history of the war through the prism of the pill... it has an uncanny ability to disturb (Roger Boyes The Times)

Very good and extremely interesting - a serious piece of scholarship very well-researched (Ian Kershaw author of Hitler and To Hell and Back)

The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life (Dan Snow)

Norman Ohler has succeeded in a remarkable scoop, by studying in detail the notebooks of Hitler's personal doctor and demonstrating that Hitler was a far worse junkie than we had ever imagined. He has also unearthed the way that the German army did not march on its stomach, but on methamphetamine. The supposedly clean-living Nazis, who accused the Jews of corrupting German youth, were the real pushers. The book, written with delightful irony, is an eye-opener. (Antony Beevor Guardian)

This book transforms the overall picture (Hans Mommsen)

Sensational (Daily Mail)

From the Back Cover

'Astonishing, gripping, convincing ... the untold story of the Third Reich's relationship with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, morphine and, above all, methamphetamines (aka crystal meth) ... changes what we know about the second world war' Rachel Cooke, Guardian

'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow

'A remarkable scoop, demonstrating that Hitler was a far worse junkie than we had ever imagined ... an eye-opener' Sir Antony Beevor

'Gripping, powerful' Anna Katharina Schaffner, The Times Literary Supplement

'Enthralling' Duncan Fallowell, Spectator

'A serious piece of scholarship' Ian Kershaw

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