Hitler's Private Library: The Books that Shaped his Life

Description

A brilliant and deeply resonant exploration of Hitler's reading habits; a unique exploration of his life; and a landmark in the study of the Third Reich. He was, of course, a man better known for burning books than collecting them and yet by the time he died, aged 56, Adolf Hitler owned an estimated 16,000 volumes - the works of historians, philosophers, poets, playwrights and novelists. For the first time, Timothy W. Ryback offers a systematic examination of this remarkable collection. The volumes in Hitler's library are fascinating in themselves but it is the marginalia - the comments, the exclamation marks, the questions and underlinings - even the dirty thumbprints on the pages of a book he read in the trenches of the First World War - which are so revealing. Hitler's Private Library provides us with a remarkable view of Hitler's evolution - and unparalleled insights into his emotional and intellectual world. Utterly compelling, it is also a landmark in our understanding of the Third Reich.

Timothy W. Ryback is the author of The Last Survivor- Legacies of Dachau, a New York Times Notable Book for 1999, and he has written for The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. He is the co-founder of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague and the Deputy-Secretary General of the Academie Diplomatique Internationale in Paris, where he currently lives.

Elegantly written, meticulously researched, fascinating * Ian Kershaw * Lively and entertaining survey of the dictator's reading ... a wealth of fascinating detail -- Richard Overy * Sunday Telegraph * Enlightening -- Clive Sinclair, Book of the Week * Independent * Ryback has made an original and interesting contribution to the study of this monster, not least by showing that, in some respects, he was just like many of the rest of us -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph * Ryback's...volume is unique in its focus on a limited number of books and in the forensic attention he lavishes on them -- Bertrand Benoit * Financial Times Review *