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Hitler: Only the World Was Enough Paperback – 3 May 2010

by Ian Kershaw (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 1,308
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Now available in a single, abridged paperback, Ian Kershaw's Hitler is the definitive biography of the Nazi leader.
Ian Kershaw's two volume biography, Hitler 1889-1936- Hubris and Hitler 1936-1945- Nemesis, was greeted with universal acclaim as the essential work on one of the most malign figures in history, from his earliest origins to the final days of the Second World War.
Now this landmark historical work is available in one single, abridged edition, tracing the story of how a bitter, failed art student from an obscure corner of Austria rose to unparalleled power, destroying the lives of millions and bringing the world to the brink of Armageddon.
'Supersedes all previous accounts. It is the sort of masterly biography that only a first-rate historian can write'
David Cannadine, Observer
'The Hitler biography for the twenty-first century'
Richard Evans, Sunday Telegraph
'I cannot imagine a better biography of this great tyrant emerging for a long while'
Jeremy Paxman
'Magisterial ... anyone who wishes to understand the Third Reich must read Kershaw, for no one has done more to lay bare Hitler's morbid psyche'
Niall Ferguson, Sunday Telegraph
'For the present generation, Kershaw's Hitler stands out as a clear beacon of truth, illuminating a dark age of terror and mendacity'
Mail on Sund
'An achievement of the very highest order'
Michael Burleigh, Financial Times
Ian Kershaw (b. 1943) was Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield from 1989-2008, and is one of the world's leading authorities on Hitler. His books include The 'Hitler Myth', his two volume biography Hitler 1889-1936- Hubris and Hitler 1936-1945- Nemesis, and Fateful Choices- Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941. He was knighted in 2002.
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  1. Print length
    1030 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Press
  4. Publication date
    3 May 2010
  5. Dimensions
    12.95 x 5.08 x 19.81 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0141035889
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0141035888
  8. See all details
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Supersedes all previous accounts. It is the sort of masterly biography that only a first-rate historian can write -- David Cannadine ― Observer

The Hitler biography for the twenty-first century -- Richard Evans ― Sunday Telegraph

I cannot imagine a better biography of this great tyrant emerging for a long while -- Jeremy Paxman

Magisterial ... anyone who wishes to understand the Third Reich must read Kershaw, for no one has done more to lay bare Hitler's morbid psyche -- Niall Ferguson ― Sunday Telegraph

For the present generation, Kershaw's Hitler stands out as a clear beacon of truth, illuminating a dark age of terror and mendacity -- Craig Brown ― Mail on Sunday

The definitive biography of the Führer -- Juliet Gardiner ― Sunday Times

An achievement of the very highest order -- Michael Burleigh ― Financial Times

Mesmerizing ... presents the twentieth century's most controversial life in a single sweep -- Michael Kerrigan ― Scotsman

About the Author

Ian Kershaw is Professor of Modern history at the University of Sheffield. For services to history he was given the German award of the Federal Cross of Merit in 1994. he was knighted in 2002 and awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2004.
He was historical advisor to three BBC series- The Nazis- A Warning From History, War of the Century and Auschwitz.
His most recent books are Hitler 1889-1936- Hubris and 1936-1945- Nemesis, which received the Wolfson Literary Award for History and the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for the Political Book of the Year, and was joint winner of the inaugural British Academy Book Prize; Making Friends with hitler- Lord Londonberry and Britain's Road to War, which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography in 2005; and, most recently, Fateful Choices- Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press; 1st edition (3 May 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1030 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141035889
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141035888
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.95 x 5.08 x 19.81 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 1,308

About the author

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Ian Kershaw

Ian Kershaw

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Sir Ian Kershaw, FBA (born 29 April 1943) is a British historian and author whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's leading experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is particularly noted for his monumental biographies of Hitler.

He was the leading disciple of the late German historian Martin Broszat, and (until his retirement) professor at the University of Sheffield. Kershaw has called Broszat an "inspirational mentor" who did much to shape his understanding of National Socialist Germany. Kershaw served as historical adviser on numerous BBC documentaries, notably The Nazis: A Warning From History and War of the Century. He taught a module titled 'Germans against Hitler'.

His wife, Dame Betty Kershaw, was professor of nursing and dean of the School of Nursing Studies at the University of Sheffield.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Amrei-Marie; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 05:47, 1 May 2015 (UTC) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Top review from Australia

dennis patterson
5.0 out of 5 stars Filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of ...
Reviewed in Australia on 16 December 2015
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Filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of him and the German peoples feelings for there leader and the worship of him plus the way the party led them along.
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Muito bom!
5.0 out of 5 stars BOM produto.
Reviewed in Brazil on 8 February 2024
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Gostei do produto em si.
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Muito bom!
5.0 out of 5 stars BOM produto.
Reviewed in Brazil on 8 February 2024
Gostei do produto em si.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Received the book in pretty good condition. Below is a longer review on book's content.
Reviewed in India on 31 August 2021
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“Masterful and domineering, but uncertain and hesitant; unwilling to take decisions, yet then prepared to take decisions bolder that anyone else could contemplate; and refusal, once made, to take back any decision: these are part of the puzzle of Hitler’s strange personality.”

-Ian Kershaw (Hitler)

After learning about the holocaust a few years back, I’d always wanted to learn more about the man, the regime and the times behind that atrocity. Having read and watched dozens of materials on the holocaust and stories about how the neighbors for decades turned onto their Jewish counterparts overnight, I was always intrigued by and wondered of the situations, systems and mindsets behind those times. Wars do foreshadow the extensive human, morale and materialistic loss but this holocaust wasn’t the consequence of war, it, apparently, was the cause, as per Hitler.

This curiosity was my primary motivation behind picking Ian Kershaw’s mammoth 1000-page biography called Hitler.

I will start off with the aspects that I loved about this book:

1. Top-notch writing: If you fear that a 1000-page non-fiction can bore you off your mind, then you are in for a big surprise. Kershaw’s writing style and storytelling are primarily the factors that kept me hooked throughout my 3-month reading odyssey. Had the book lacked evocative and smooth storytelling, it could have been a real struggle for me to complete it.

2. Extensive research: If you start keeping a note of hundreds of names, meetings, conversations, diary-entries referred to in the book, you will realize the amount of research that must have gone into this work, which, for me, also enhances the credibility of the content. This deep research reminded me of O Jerusalem! by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, which, in comparison, was a shorter work, but is definitely an excellent example of good-researched work.

3. Titles of chapters: Now, this might not be an important aspect for all the readers, but a good and apt title that sets the tone of a chapter, specifically in a non-fiction, speaks a lot about the writer’s talent for me. And Kershaw’s book just aces the chapters’ title game. Just a look at the index can picture a journey: rise of Hitler from nothingness to a great European power’s leader to the ultimate historic downfall.

This was about the book’s structure and writing, its technicalities so to say, but was it worth spending months on this biography, you may ask. And to that I’d unhesitatingly respond with an absolute yes!

Kershaw’s biography delivers what it promises. It starts with Adolf Hitler’s birth in Austria’s Linz and ends with his suicide in Germany’s Berlin. It’s not a hidden fact (or conclusion) that if not for Germany’s WWI defeat, if not for the gross humiliation that Germans wanted to avenge for, if not for the deep economic and moral crisis Germany was facing during the post-WWI period, if not for the breeding grounds that various German cities and towns had become for numerous fascist and radical ideas, Hitler and the Nazis would, most probably, have never been born, and even if they did, would have blended with unknown and, like many others, died unnoticed – this is what Kershaw’s biography’s premise is too and the inspiration of my post’s title.

Without National Socialist German Workers’ Party and WWII, Hitler’s significance evaporates in history. And that is what this biography’s significant portion covers: pre-WWI Hitler (for which there are various contradictory evidences and accounts and is thus, in comparison, the period based a lot on conjectures), his rise in German Workers’ Party that formed post-WWI (times when dozens of various fascist parties were forming throughout Germany to avenge for the undeserving humiliation they suffered post WWI), the failed beer hall putsch in 1923 that proved decisive in highlighting Hitler’s indispensability for the party and rendering him with dictatorial powers, rise of the Nazi party in Germany between 1920s and 1930s and eventual ascent to the power in 1933, discussions and gradual execution of numerous genocidal plans (not just of Jews), various annexations and expansions from late 1930’s to early 1940’s, and the beginning and the end of WWII.

Hitler didn’t create any new wave or line of thought in Germany at the time. All he did was just fuel the world’s most potent and latent weapons – existing hatred and prejudices – and licensed every imaginable bold and brutal way of realizing the barbaric fantasies of Nazis.

Like many other hurt, angry and revengeful post-WWI Germans, Hitler could have stayed one in that mix. His being a WWI German soldier (dispatch runner), being sent to newly-formed political party gatherings post WWI to gather intelligence, getting recognized for and realizing his natural talent at being an effective orator and a stimulating demagogue, getting his megalomaniac figure fed with all the right ingredients and German people looking in him the savior of their fatherland, all lead to the creation of a radical, egomaniacal tyrant and his empire, with propaganda and image-building at their core.

And if not for the conducive environment and circumstances of that time, even Hitler’s exceptional oratory skills and speeches, which reeked of passionate hatred and meant to evoke the same in others, would have meant nothing and history would have been different – in a better way or a worse, we’d never know.

“Hitler’s “mission” since he entered politics had been to undo the stain of defeat and humiliation in 1918 by destroying Germany’s enemies – internal and external – and restoring national greatness.”

-Ian Kershaw (Hitler)

For me, Germany’s 1920s and 1930s signify the dangers of making a man (or a woman) the nation and its law, and vulnerability and gullibility of human beings in hurt and pain. How soon humans turn to find scapegoats for their own loss and defeat, how humiliation and suffering can unite people and turn them against a common so-called enemy, how easily can distressed humans turn their emotions off for the “outsiders”, how readily can humans be social-engineered in times of crisis – does any of this seem relevant only of a bygone era? To me, all of it is as fitting to any situation today, be it political or otherwise, as it was during that period. Years may have progressed, but humans and their basic psyche are still the same, and that is what marks the global relevance and importance of this book for me.

It is extremely convenient to scrutinize the actions and beliefs of a country decades down the line. When we are in a situation, there are only a few people who can really see the situation for what it is. It is only in hindsight do you see the red flags and signs that rang no bell back then.

Before reading this book, I always found Hitler the only culprit of the holocaust, of early-mid 1900s melodrama. It served him right too considering his hatred for the conventional parliamentary system, which he hated primarily because of the absence of a single answerable authority. But after my read, it probably wouldn’t be wrong to say that as wrong as Hitler was in, all the ministers and officers that surrounded him and run the Nazi regime, and German civilians that provided him the platform to launch himself, were equally in the same wrong side of the history.

If Hitler based his life’s mission of making Germany great again on highly racist, hyper-nationalistic, radical and all-or-nothing principles, the Nazi regime and Germany of the time did everything to provide him the support that could bring his vision to life. As the book rightly mentions that anybody who could, worked towards Führer. It wasn’t always the threat or fear, which I’m sure civilians at the time did face, that made people work towards Führer’s vision and his grandiose and unethical plans for Germany, but just the sheer faith that Führer is the messiah that Germany needed to rise and prosper post WWI’s humiliating defeat were enough to provide Nazis with the resources.

Having said that, there were various German civilians that protested (some openly like Georg Elser) against Hitler and his regime, and various Nazi officers and colonels who realized the ruins their own regime was leading Germany and the entire Europe to, and thus, took actions accordingly (Claus von Stauffenberg’s infamous July plot). There were various German Wehrmacht officers too, who tried, unsuccessfully, to contradict and dissuade Hitler from his barbaric or, sometimes, too bold/fatally flawed plans throughout the regime. Thus, Germany did try to save itself – most of those attempts could never be successfully carried out, some were too feeble to be impactful, some came too late, and some, never.

It wouldn’t be right to say that the biography answers all my questions, which only increased exponentially while reading this book, but it does leave me at a safe spot where I at least know my questions. And, honestly, after a certain point, like many other historical events, all that is left is an assortment of conjectures and opinions – neither of which help in establishing a fact that I may consider an answer. But, as I said, I do feel confident enough to know what, and if, I want to pursue further on this subject.

The only expectation from this biography that, I felt, could lead to disappointment is the search for deep psychological references and answers to the whys of Hitler’s, Nazi party’s and other Germans’ actions – which aren’t there. This book is heavily based on the factual, economic, political and logistical aspects of those times. And, thus, should be read with the expectation of exploring the same.

Before I sign-off, I’d just like to keep you informed that this was my first extensive read on Hitler/Nazi regime/WWII and, by no means, I’d advertise this as the best book out there on the subject. But this definitely is an extremely well-researched, well-written and highly informational book, and certainly a must-read for anyone interested in the topic. There is just so much out there on Hitler and Nazi regime that once you start reading, you can pave your own path with the kind of sub-domains that you’d like to further dive into.

But after having read this book, I’d not shy away in recommending it to anyone and everyone regardless their nationality, race or age. This biography’s and subject’s relevance precedes any and all the social strands of societal structure, especially in today’s chaotic and complex system of lives, specifically the political ones, where not the dearth, but the overwhelming amount of information, makes us, humans, the most vulnerable we ever have been in history.

“The old Germany was gone with Hitler. The Germany which had produced Adolf Hitler, had seen its future in his vision, had so readily served him, and had shared in his hubris, had also to share his nemesis.”

-Ian Kershaw (Hitler)
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3.0 out of 5 stars Parcial hacia los aliados
Reviewed in Mexico on 18 October 2019
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Le hubiera puesto 5 estrellas si hubiera escrito el libro de forma imparcial sin dar su opinion personal de Hitler como todos considerandolo como el mismo demonio. Por otro lado da detalles de la vida de Hitler que no se encuentran en otras fuentes de informacion.
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Luis M Castellvi
4.0 out of 5 stars Hitler, buena biografía a la que le faltan referencias
Reviewed in Spain on 5 December 2020
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Una muy buena biografía. Describe de forma amena el ascenso y caída del líder nazi, su ideología y su fuerte personalismo. Sin embargo, le falta rigor académico con la falta de referencias a algunas afirmaciones y su bibliografía es relativamente corta. Algunas frases puestas en boca de Hitler tales como "la guerra es la esencia del hombre" o sus planes de colonización de Rusia siguiendo el modelo desarrollado por Inglaterra en la India necesitan más soporte referencial. Tampoco descubre cómo un líder con dudosa formación académica pudo alcanzar su privilegiada posición, y embaucar a su país y sus aliados en la locura de la segunda guerra mundial. El capítulo (extinction) de los últimos días de Hitler es muy interesante, mientras el que cubre sus atentados es algo confuso.
En resumen, recomendable con los peros esbozados más arriba.
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Donato
5.0 out of 5 stars An important book
Reviewed in Italy on 15 July 2020
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What a trip. Its 1000 pages depict a compelling image of Hitler and the Third Reich. Historical accuracy is present in one and every page of this huge work of reconstruction.
The main theme that connects the dots of this horrifying story, the so-called "work toward the Führer" and the strictly associated Führer cult together provide a solid explanation to the workings of the Third Reich. I found interesting also the depiction of the German people during the last stage of the tragedy: Kershaw never loses the opportunity to underline the feeling of the normal people (reported ad SD accounts) and thus helping to clarify the stance of the Germans in that historical period. Movies almost never underline this crucial aspect: they all depict the Germans as criminals, but this is far from true. Suffering of the normal people resulted, astonishingly soon, to a sudden drop of faith in the regime, till the final moment, in which a destroyed country barely payed attention to the death of who was acclaimed as the greatest of the Germans few years before. Germans never really wanted war. They - the population at large - just wanted peace and prosperity. They never really understood their Leader, and payed the consequences.
It is difficult to find any weak point in the prose of the Author. The book can be read without be annoying or uninteresting.
In the end, I have to say that overall this is a greater work than the great Fest's "Hitler" biografy, which I have in high estimation.
Kershaw has written *the* biografy everyone should read.
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