DOC 1924: The Year That Made Hitler by Peter Ross Range in History

Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. An important account of Hitler's early political life; although it struggles with "Mein Kampf"By William Mead1924: The Year That Made Hitler is an educational book about an important period in the world's history. The author has delivered a well-documented account that is clear and readable. Even if you have read a classic such as "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"; this book will add to your knowledge of Hitler's early failure and the factors that let him recover and advance his "National Socialist" agenda.The book begins before 1924; and draws a compelling picture of the disastrous consequences of WWI on German government; economy; and people. Germany was a festering wound; and Mr. Range shows clearly how Hitler became the national hero that would fix all of Germany's woes via -- what? -- another war. Hitler was the perfect unstable leader for a country that was itself unstable and struggling. He was a master at putting together and selling a disastrous plan.The first half of the book carries the story from the post-WWI conditions in Germany through the failed putsch; in November; 1923 that sent Hitler and some of his co-conspirators to jail. The second half of the book shows how Hitler turned his trial into a trial of the "illegitimate" existing German government; and how he used his subsequent time in jail (less than a year) to write "Mein Kampf"; the book that dramatized his early life and projected his vision of his own and Germany's future.I found the first half of the story gripping and insightful. Although I've heard this story before; Range paints Hitler's early rise in such vivid colors that one comes to appreciate how such an apparently impossible perversion of the whole German people could be not only possible; but actually nearly inevitable. At the same time; Range identifies a few turning points at which slightly different circumstances could have derailed Hitler's drive to power.The account of how Hitler turned his "trial" into a complete fiasco was fascinating.The remainder of the book is devoted largely to the period in jail when Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf". I found this part of the book to be somewhat superficial and tedious. It seems to me that Mr. Range could have dealt more fully and compellingly with the conceptual developments that emerged in Hitler's tome; instead of describing the mechanics and conditions that allowed Hitler time to write the book (in rather more detail than I care about). Some judicious editing could; I think; shorten this part of the book by 30% without losing anything essential.Mr. Range suggests; without over-emphasizing the point; that Hitler was mentally deranged from the start of his political life.I recommend this book as an account of a page in history that I hope and pray mankind can avoid repeating. However; if you haven't read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer; I highly recommend you read that brilliant work; first. Then let some time pass before reading "1924"; and you will deepen your knowledge of Hitler's early failure and recovery and the economic and social climate that allowed it to happen.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. While he has a journalist’s flair for the narrative and the telling of a good story; he does not have the historian’s art ...By Russell StayanoffThe Weimar Republic historian; from the University of Freiburg; Heinrich August Winkler has written; “ How it happened that Hitler came to power is still the most important question of nineteenth and twentieth-century German history; if not all German history.” Peter Ross Range in his work; 1924: The Year That Made Hitler; attempts to answer this question from the background of a journalist rather than that of an academic. What emerges from Range’s keyboard is a highly readable; cogent; and lucid narrative that describes those critical years without being drawn into the temptation of all academics in what can only be called “excessive explication.” What did this man of such limited talent do in a prison cell to turn himself into someone whom millions found so compelling? In beginning his narrative; Range spares his readers from the now ubiquitous childhood personality analysis of young Adolf’s early Linz years; so endemic of most Hitler biographers; and; instead; concerns the majority of his first chapters with Hitler’s “Road to Damascus” experiences in Munich after the war that convinced him he had found his mission and purpose in life. There were also those incongruent individuals that would serve as his inner circle. Some; who were needed at the time and would later be conveniently dispensed with; and others who would stand by him; would be called to account at Nuremberg to answer with their lives. It should be mentioned at this juncture; while reading the author’s biographical sketches of Hitler’s early inner circle; that Peter Ross Range is a journalist first and foremost. While he has a journalist’s flair for the narrative and the telling of a good story; he does not have the historian’s art for dispassionate observation. His overuse of damning invective of everything Nazi; while understandable; takes away from the objectivity of his descriptions and can be unnecessarily distracting.Peter Ross Range’s 1924: The Year That Made Hitler is a credible and readable tome that fills the recent void in scholarship regarding Adolf Hitler’s transformation from a hothead revolutionary into a long view political player. The high school dropout could now discuss international relations with seasoned diplomats and hold his own. Kurt Ludecke; a Nazi supporter who visited Hitler late in his sentence at Landsberg; had said that Hitler had . . . “changed direction from the true north of idealism to the magnetic north of realism.” "Our movement;" Hitler wrote; "is antiparliamentary; and even our participation in a parliamentary institution can only serve the purpose of destroying and removing it." In the elections of 1932 and in his accession to the Chancellorship in 1933; Hitler kept his promise.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Read Before VotingBy NewmsAbout 1905 George Santayana penned the often paraphrased quote; "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."This is the story of the beginning of an power hungry egotist's rise to unbridled power. In this book there are many lessons from the past that bear well noting in our current political environment.Some of the comparisons to Hitler are applicable to our evaluation of today's politicians in their quest for power.Quotes from the book.."Hitler cunningly allowed the Nazi Party to squabble and self-destruct so he could later call it back to life on his own terms; remade in his own image and definitely under his thumb.""His fanaticism and popular style commands the audience and the cooperation of the audience.""It makes no difference whether they laugh at us or revile us;" Hitler wrote. "The main thing is that they mention us."Historian Roman Toppel wrote; "Hitler only seized anti-Semitism as the "winning horse' in the existing political environment.""His message appealed not only to the disenfranchised working-class people; but especially to the petite bourgeoisie who were one notch above blue collar workers yet fearful of slipping down the ladder.""Hitler was a nonstop chatterbox and domineering conversation partner."George Bernard Shaw said; "Politics is the last resort for the scoundrels."