HITLER - AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE (HB)

As Chancellor of Germany between 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler exercised untrammeled power over his country's social, political and economic life. Hitler's belligerent re-armament program, his imposition of anti-Semitic legislation and his territorially aggressive policies led to genocide and worldwide conflict on an unprecedented scale. Although the subject of numerous biographies and fictional portrayals, there have hitherto been few succinct, factual narratives of Hitler's life. Hitler is a short chronicle of the Fuehrer's career, amplified with reproductions of numerous posters and artifacts, and accompanied by generously captioned and stunning images of the period as well as a DVD featuring 45 minutes of remarkable archive footage from the Nazi era. Second World War expert Robin Cross offers a clear outline of Hitler's career: from his unhappy childhood as the son of a minor Austrian official in Braunau, to his inglorious early occupation as a Viennese house painter; from his formative experiences as a corporal in the First World War, to his emergence as leader of the National Socialist Workers' Party in the 1920s; from his extraordinary rise to supreme power in 1933, to his suicide amidst the ruins of Berlin in 1945. Commanding, informative and sumptuous, and written by a scholar who is steeped in knowledge of the period, Hitler is an essential companion for anyone with a fascination for the 20th century, the Second World War or the age of dictators.