Book Review: Hitler by Ian Kershaw

Hitler 1889-1936 Hubris (1998)
Hitler 1936-1945 Nemesis (2000)
by Ian Kershaw

[Also available as a single volume edition, but I read the two volume edition]

Sir Ian Kershaw (a prominent British historian and a long time expert in matters regarding Nazi Germany and Hitler) wrote this two volume history (later republished in a single volume abridged edition) in order to find a middle ground between the sensationalist tabloid style biographies written on the subject and the more scholarly, dry, and plodding analysis which often include minutae of detail with very little approachable content.

Kershaw also wanted to write about Hitler not as a single personality, the over-personalization, the all powerful dictator, found in the tabloid histories, where everything rides or dies on Hitler's words but portray him more in situ, showing more of the effect of the world around him had on Hitler as well as the other way around.

Kershaw's work does just this.  It shows how Hitler took advantage of the political and social climate of the times, and even "rode the wave" at times.  Hitler, portrayed by Kershaw, was no political astute and, it seemed, blundered into things.  I'm sure that Dr. Kershaw would not like this oversimplification but Hitler was simply "at the right place, at the right time" in his analysis.  

Indeed, Kershaw's Hitler is a buffoon.  He's sort of an evil version of Steve Martin's character in The Jerk, or an evil Forrest Gump.  Someone who is a blundered, shouting, maniac but seems to pop up at the most opportune moment and get propped up by industrial and cultural backers who think they can control him and who think Hitler will serve their purpose.  Of course, in the end, it was totally the other way around.  They served Hitler's purpose, but by the time they realized that, it was far far too late.  

Kershaw, while a major academic character, writes very well.  He writes fluidly and entertainingly.  His language, while academic, is not dry.  I have heard Dr. Kershaw speak in a lecture on Hitler given to the Open University and he is a lively and entertaining speaker.  His writing is similar.  However, he still uses very academic language and his sentences are thickly constructed with meaning, so it will take longer to get through his text than, say, a regular book. 

The book does not totally focus on Hitler, and one can even say that this work is not so much a biography on Hitler but a history of the Third Reich with the focus on Hitler.  Other events and people are discussed in depth; however, attention is always brought back to Hitler, the focus of the narrative is from his point of view or on Hitler himself.  For instance, Rommel is mentioned but this book does not discuss the North African campaign, unless it is to illustrate something about Hitler's actions and reactions.

Kershaw wrote this to be a more accessible but yet fully academic discussion of Adolf Hitler.  Kershaw is a serious historian and, as such, there is no discussion on the occult influences of the early Nazis nor any of the other more fanciful conspiracy theories which surround Adolf Hitler.  He does spend some time on the possibility of Adolf Hitler's Jewish ancestry although Kershaw comes to the conclusion that this was most probably not true.  In the end, Kershaw rules that the area of Germany in which Hitler's ancestors lived had excluded Jews in the mid 19th century so it would have been even more unlikely for one of Hitler's grandparents to have been Jewish.

Ian Kershaw's greatest contribution to Nazi Germany studies is the Working Towards The Fuhrer concept.  Basically, Hitler didn't have to micromanage Germany because everyone around him, desperate to please him, ran off and did stuff that they thought Hitler wanted done.  Kershaw came to this conclusion trying to explain why, given that Hitler was essentially a lazy dictator who did very little real "work" from day to day, got people to do so much stuff in his name.  It also helps to explain the most horrible of his deeds, the Holocaust.  Hitler did not need to go into elaboriate detail on paper or in speeches about exterminating the Jews, he just had to keep insinuating to Himmler and other goons how much he hated them.  These satraps then ran off and, wanting to work toward the Fuhrer, do something to get in good with Hitler and please him, progressed to the mass murder of the Jews as well as millions of other "undesirables."  Rather a case of "who will rid me of this turbulent priest!" with an equally ghastly outcome.  Except that Hitler didn't feel bad at all afterwards.

There have been hundreds and hundreds of books written about the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler.  Some of these books have been written by giants in the field, famous historians and figures.  But Ian Kershaw's Hitler is right up there at the top of the list.  This work is simply required reading for anyone who claims to study Hitler or the Third Reich, either officially or as an "armchair historian" like me.