Why Hitler Came Into Power

By Theodore Abel

Book Overview

In 1934 Theodore Abel went to Germany and offered a prize, under the auspices of Columbia University, for autobiographies of members of the National Socialist movement. The six hundred essays he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0404168973
• ISBN13: 9780404168971
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: AMS Press
• Length: 323 Pages

Customer Reviews

Chilling View on Mass Movements

I read this book 15 years ago and I still can't forget it. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the foundations of the Nazi party, mass movements, propaganda, cults, etc. As I recall, it doesn't take a side and try to demonize or sympathize with its subjects (Nazi party members). Rather, it takes a cold, clinical look at their motives and reports their stories in their own words. Chilling and hard to put down, this will have you really pondering the nature of modern political movements. Highly recommended.

EXTEMELY Interesting and HISTORICALLY acurate book

EXTEMELY Interesting and HISTORICALLY acurate book written just prior to World War-II by an American Theodore Abel who went to Germany, witnessed the Depression, Inflation, Right and Left Wing rioting and activities, first hand. Theodore Abel went further into understanding WHY and HOW Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist party took root among the "ordinary middle class and uneducated lower class German people" and he obtained thousands of autobiographies from the ordinary German people by offering prizes under the auspices of Columbia University. He received over 600 essays from Nazi Party members which revealed why they had embraced Nazi-ism and Hitler with the enthusiasm that they did. Some of these essays are printed word for word in this book which Abel presents as the life histories of A WORKER, A SOLDIER, AN ANTI-SEMITE, A MIDDLE CLASS YOUTH, A FARMER, A BANK CLERK. This books main purpose is to show in the light of the author's unique personal data, the relative importance of each of the factors which led to Hitler's rise to power. Afer reading this book,...you be the judge of "COULD IT HAPPEN AGAIN?".