Eberhard JäckelBesprekingen

This short collections of essays is one of the most cogent assessments of Hitler and Nazi Germany I have read, and I have read a lot. Jäckel manages in 100 pages what others require thousands of pages, offering fresh insights into how Hitler came to power, how he ruled, and his decisions on teh conduct of the war.

This book gives us a look at how Hitler viewed the world. This book is written with great skill. Here it is shown that Hitler had a self-consistent Weltanschauung. It is an analysis of Hitler's own writtings; both versions of "Mein Kampf" and his "Secret Book". See why he did what he did. The reason for his domestic and foreign policy. The truth that Hitler was neither a nationalist nor a socialist but a racist. And his thoughts on the Jews. And how he convinced himself that only through expansion, racial purity and the destruction of the Jewish people could any Nation/Race survive and prosper.

I get no end of trouble for having such a book; my wife is afraid guests will see it lying on a table and freak out. ("Look! Harvard University Press!", I'll plead.) The first mission of the book is, not surprisingly, to defend the idea that Hitler had ideas——evil ideas, but ideas——and that there is any point in tracing their development and understanding their contours. The actual argument is to my tastes somewhat tedious, but the effort is commendable.