I’ll go with the low-hanging fruit: Mein Kampf. I’ve read it, cover to cover. As a piece of propaganda, it’s good. As an example of good writing? Absolutely not (though I will admit I have only read it in translation). Oh, and the whole fascist, racist, and generally shitty worldview of the author that he infuses into the text. And the fact that the author is literally Hitler. You 5-star that book? You’re a Nazi. Period. And as a Jewish person, I don’t look too kindly on them.
Thank you for this. That was more informative than years of public school coverage of WWII and the lead up to it.
I knew about the Treaty of Versailles and how harsh it was- or was at least perceived to be- but not about Hitler’s promise to do away with it.
Do you have any preferred authors/books for further reading on the subject? I’m still trying to undo years of poor education from being taught in a conservative school.
Most of my knowledge comes from Ian Kershaw’s two-volume biography of Hitler. He’s one of the foremost English-language academic historians studying Nazi Germany. He gives an excellent overview of the conditions in Germany, the political machinations throughout as well as an in-depth study of Hitler both as a person and his moves as dictator. I was interested in the subject mostly because I find Hollywood and more standard school education doesn’t really go into detail as to how the Nazis ran the Axis side of the war or what life was like in Nazi Germany, and Hitler’s characterisation is mostly a “big bad villain guy” with nothing beyond that. Kershaw’s biography filled in those blanks for me.
Thank you kindly! I’ll be hitting up the nonfiction section of my local bookshops to try and find them.
I’ve always been curious about that period in history.