Adolf Hitler: A Life From Beginning to End (World War 2 Biographies)

For the sake of transparency, I was asked by the publisher of this book to do an honest review and they supplied me with a free version of the book. I have done this in the past and sometimes have unfortunately had to write an unfavorable review. But that's not true in this case. I think what Hourly History is doing is wonderful. They choose specific topics of history and write a concise, well-written book that is supposed to take approximately 1 hour to read. In this case the topic was Adolph Hitler. I was amazed at how much information could be packed into such a short read. Though many people are very knowledgeable about this tyrant I believe most could still learn some unknown fact by reading this. In this short book they cover his life from birth to death and include the influences and occurrences that molded him into who he became. I also appreciated that they made it clear when there were questions about what exactly the facts were, when different sources stated different facts. This book was very well written and an easy read.The concept behind Hourly History allows someone who only wants to know about a specific topic to read a short book on that topic, and not have to wander through vast history books or large tomes to get to the meat of the topic he or she is interested in. This is a great idea and I look forward to reading more of their books in the future.

When you think of the most terrible man in history immediately your thoughts go to Adolf Hilter. After all man is the cause behind millions of peoples deaths. Why would anyone want to read about such a terrible person you may ask? Well, I for one was curious about how he came to be? Was he a terrible child, did he have a bad home life? Could those be the causes for his beliefs and ultimately the sending millions of people to their death? This book tells you all that. It starts from the beginning with his father and goes up to the time he killed himself. It is very detailed with information that I had never heard of about Hitler before. The author gives explanations on what caused such a change in a young boy who wanted to become a priest or an artist to become the most hated man in the world. This book is just a quick read that gives you a taste of who Adolf Hitler was. It will start you on your journey of knowledge of him. This would be a great book for students who are writing a report on him. Or someone who wants to understand a little more about the man behind the deaths of so many Jewish people, gypsies, and anyone he deemed unfit to be the Aryan race.

A good, concise book. Plain descriptions with an accurate sense for what was essential in this tragic story of the 20th century.

I was interested in learning the history and origin story of Adolf Hitler, what shaped his childhood and how he rose to power. This book even gives an overview of the events of world war 2 and left me in awe of how one man could cause so much devestation in such a short period of time. Certainly dispelled the idea that Hitler was merely a bitter failed artist who somehow talked his way into power, but was instead a young boy who through a series of tragic life events and racist brainwashing, became a nationalist extremist who became bent on restoring the country that he fought for in WWI to a place of supremecy.

This book by Hourly History certainly serves its objective of giving readers a concise introduction to Adolf Hitler's life. There are far too many tomes about World War 2 as well as Hitler himself and it is easy to get lost in the details of the time. So its rather refreshing to read a compact book that gives a layout of the man's life. Yet, there are some periods of Hitler's life that are given more attention than others - I really enjoyed reading about the time he spent in WWI and the things he learnt there, it gives quite a bit of insight into his future persona. I missed reading similar detail about the later part of his life, especially during WWII, which is summarized a little too quickly so that the last 10 years of Hitler's personal life/ thoughts remained unclear. It would have been good to read how he responded to some of the biggest battles of WW2 and the way some of those failures led to his mental imbalance. Eva Braun is mentioned only in one line, and that aspect of his life could have been elaborated upon somewhat too. Of course, that would have led to a 1.5 hour book not a 1 hour one! In all fairness, it is very hard to compress the life of such a historically relevant and larger than life personality into an hour's read, and I don't think I would have ever picked up a tome on Hitler - just not my cup of tea. This book gave me a good insight into his personality, it is packed with information and hardly a word is wasted. I am going to read more books by Hourly History!

There have been countless biographies of the notorious German dictator Adolf Hitler since his death. There have been a few excellent in depth books on Hitler, particularly Ian Kershaw's two volume series and Volker Ullrich's first volume of the recent biography. (I am sure the following volume will also be impressive.) Those who would like a brief summary of Hitler's life, his rise to power in Germany, and his ultimate downfall in World War II (which he was largely responsible for) will be quite satisfied with ADOLF HITLER: A LIFE FROM BEGINNING TO END. There are a few flaws. For instance, the burning of Germany's Parliamentary building the Reichstag was in February 1933, not March and although the author briefly mentions Joseph Goebbels, he doesn't explain that he was Hitler's propaganda minister. On the whole, though, this is excellent reading, a warning about what happens when a maniac is given unlimited power. Too much of today's society all over the world doesn't seem to heed this warning.

Like so many people, I have heard horror stories about Adolf Hitler all my life, but I knew very little about the man himself or his background. In the span of about an hour, Hourly History takes us on a tour through Hitler's childhood and young adulthood, showing how the groundwork was laid and the seeds were planted for the monster this man would become. It described how Hitler initially became involved with the Nazi party and his rise up through the ranks of the German government. There were many major events in his life that I was not aware of - being rejected from art school, his mother's death, and the many other occurrences that shaped the emotional imbalance that ruled most of his adulthood. I had no idea of the staggering numbers of people tortured and/or killed under his leadership, but that is all summarized near the end of the book. I have read (as well as enjoyed) quite a few books in the Hourly History series, and have learned new things from each of them. Some of the books are even free on Amazon, so check out the long list of titles and start learning the basics about a wide variety of historical figures and events.

I didn't feel that I ever understood how he got into a position to do such horrible things to his own country as well as all of Europe and in particular the Jewish population. The loss to the world of 6 million Jews and their enormous intellect has undoubtedly still having repercussions. I will never understand how such hatred can be a part of mankind which it clearly is and we must always be aware of. This is a short and interesting read.