Overview
When Hitler's war ended in 1945, the war over Hitler—who he really was, what gave birth to his unique evil—had just begun. Hitler did not escape the bunker in Berlin but, half a century later, he has managed to escape explanation in ways both frightening and profound. Explaining Hitler is an extraordinary quest, an expedition into the war zone of Hitler theories. This is a passionate, enthralling book that illuminates what Hitler explainers tell us about Hitler, about the explainers, and about ourselves.
Editorials
People Magazine
What made Hitler so evil? There are dozens of conflicting theories, the most engaging of which are dissected here.Michael R. Marrus
[Rosenbaum] has a sympathetic ear, a knack for classification and a sharp, critical mind. -- The New York Times Book ReviewMarc Fisher
Cultural criticism served up as riveting narrative history. . .with words and ideas that surprise, amuse and even elevate the reader.—Washington Post Book World
Gabriel Schoenfeld
Glistens with insight and intelligence and shimmers with originality — CommentaryBoston Globe
Uniquely illuminates one of the darkest corners of modern experience.New York Times Book Review
A report on . . .refractory issues of Hitler theory, and on the theorists themselves, by a sharp, critical investigative journalist.Library Journal
Rosenbaum, a literary journalist (Esquire, New York Times Magazine), believes that although much has been written about Hitler, not much has been settled. Drawing on archival research and interviews with historians, he has produced a well written work of historiography and, at times, investigative journalism, tracing the history not of Hitler per se, but of the 'Hitler explainers.' Beginning with the intrepid Munich Post reporters of the '20s and early '30s, who dared to challenge Hitler's controlled public image and were a thorn in his side, to the early postwar historians (Trevor-Roper and Bullock) and the new generation of scholars (Browning and Goldhagen), the author gives these historians opportunities to address questions that might not have been covered in their published works. Readers expecting a full-length biography of Hitler (which was not the author's purpose) will no doubt be disappointed, but Rosenbaum admirably sheds light on the many quarrels and inconsistencies in the literature, from the mysterious death of Geli Raubal (Hitler's niece), to the question of Hitler's evil, to the debate between functionalists and intentionalists. -- John A. Drobnicki, CUNY York College LibraryLibrary Journal
Rosenbaum, a literary journalist (Esquire, New York Times Magazine), believes that although much has been written about Hitler, not much has been settled. Drawing on archival research and interviews with historians, he has produced a well written work of historiography and, at times, investigative journalism, tracing the history not of Hitler per se, but of the 'Hitler explainers.' Beginning with the intrepid Munich Post reporters of the '20s and early '30s, who dared to challenge Hitler's controlled public image and were a thorn in his side, to the early postwar historians (Trevor-Roper and Bullock) and the new generation of scholars (Browning and Goldhagen), the author gives these historians opportunities to address questions that might not have been covered in their published works. Readers expecting a full-length biography of Hitler (which was not the author's purpose) will no doubt be disappointed, but Rosenbaum admirably sheds light on the many quarrels and inconsistencies in the literature, from the mysterious death of Geli Raubal (Hitler's niece), to the question of Hitler's evil, to the debate between functionalists and intentionalists. -- John A. Drobnicki, CUNY York College LibraryMichiko Kakutani
An important contribution. . .An exciting, lucid book informed by old-fashioned moral rigor and common sense. -- The New York TimesGabriel Schoenfeld
Glistens with insight and intelligence and shimmers with originality -- CommentaryThe Philadelpia Inquirer
Reading this book is like having a long conversation with someone who's passionate, brilliant.Lance Morrow
Brilliant. . .Restlessly probing and deeply intelligent. -- Time MagazineLawrence L. Langer
...[A] picaresque excursion through the landscape of theories about Hitler's criminality and...his hatred of Jews....Rosenbaum....roams the intellectual countryside in pursuit of Hitler's authentic identity, meeting...a cast of characters....[who] have different ideas about the nature and origin of the evil...that led to the destruction of European Jewry. -- The Atlantic MonthlyMarc Fisher
Cultural criticism served up as riveting narrative history. . .with words and ideas that surprise, amuse and even elevate the reader. -- Washington Post Book WorldKirkus Reviews
A resourcefully imaginative examination of our desperate search for an explanation of ultimate evil. In the vast literature on Hitler and the Holocaust, one question recurs again and again: Why? If the 'how' (the mechanics and bureaucracy) of the 'final solution' has been detailed, then the vexatious 'why' still haunts the world's collective conscience. Rosenbaum (Travels with Dr. Death; Manhattan Passions), a New York Observer cultural affairs columnist, brings a journalist's vigorous, querying temperament to a topic that all too often drowns in opaque pedantic moralizing.Rosenbaum has read extensively and thoughtfully; he also casts a wide intellectual net, writing chapters on the interpretive musings of H.R. Trevor-Roper, Alan Bullock, Yehuda Bauer, the philosopher Berel Lang, literary critic George Steiner, filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, and even the Hitler apologist and revisionist David Irving. (Conspicuously and curiously absent is Primo Levi, whose work The Drowned and the Saved is a classic in the field.) Potentially explosive subjects—for example, Hitler's reportedly 'abnormal' sexuality—are handled with discerning intelligence. Rosenbaum employs a brilliant methodological stratagem by taking Albert Schweitzer's 1906 study, The Quest for the Historical Jesus, as a model. Schweitzer realized that the 19th-century school of German Protestant 'higher criticism,' which prided itself on its 'scientific' positivism in explaining Jesus, actually revealed more about scholars themselves than the historical figure they were studying. Similarly, Rosenbaum shows how the various attempts to 'explain' Hitler are prisms that reflect our ownfears and desires. This leads, of course, to the not insignificant matter of Rosenbaum's own fears and desires, ironically not fully addressed by the author. Yet his great contribution is that, unlike most Holocaust scholars, he refuses to offer a definitive explanation. Instead, he lays out with memorable clarity a series of tantalizing interpretations, preferring a 'poetry of doubt' that allows us to grapple for ourselves with the question of evil. Profound and provocative.