The "Hitler Myth"
Image and Reality in the Third Reich
Oxford [Oxfordshire] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1989.
Format: Book
Description: xii, 297 pages ; 20 cm
Few, if any, twentieth-century political leaders have enjoyed greater popularity among their own people than Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s. Yet the personality of Hitler himself and his obsessive ideological fixations can scarcely explain his immense popularity and political effectiveness on his assumption of power in 1933. Hitler's hold over the German people lay rather in the hopes and perceptions of the millions who adored him: their admiration rested less on the bizarre and arcane precepts of Nazi ideology than on social and political values recognizable in many societies other than the Third Reich. Ian Kershaw charts the creation, growth, and decline of the "Hitler myth". He demonstrates how the manufactured Führer cult formed a crucial integrating force in the Third Reich and a vital element in the attainment of Nazi political aims. Masters of the new techniques of propaganda, the Nazis used them to exploit and build on the beliefs, phobias, and prejudices of the day. Their successful "deification" of the Führer in a modern industrial state carries a far from comfortable message. - Back cover.
Contents:
Introduction -- Part one : The making of the "Hitler myth", 1920-1940. Führer of the coming Germany : the Hitler image in the Weimar era -- Symbol of the nation : the propaganda profile of Hitler, 1933-1936 -- Führer without sin : Hitler and the "little Hitlers" -- The Führer versus the radicals : Hitler's image and the "church struggle" -- Hitler the statesman : war and peace in the balance -- Part two : The breaking of the "Hitler myth", 1940-1945. Blitzkrieg triumph : high peak of popularity, 1940-41 -- The war turns sour : the "Hitler myth" starts to crumble -- Defeat and disaster : the "Hitler myth" collapses -- Part three : The "Hitler myth" and the path to genocide. Hitler's popular image and the "Jewish question" -- Conclusion.
Subjects:
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945.
Public opinion -- Germany.
Propaganda, German -- History -- 20th century.
Germany -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945.
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945.
Public opinion -- Germany.
Propaganda, German -- History -- 20th century.
Germany -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945.
ISBN:
0192822349
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
SSHC HISTORY Europe Germany Ker | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Selden K. Smith Holocaust Collection | In |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Translated from the German.
Translated from the German.