Overview
He was the second most important man in the Third Reich, ruthless tyrant who bludgeoned his way to power, arranged the assassinations of his rivals, and built a massive industrial empire that was the driving force behind Germany's rearmament., In this definitive biography, Richard Overy demonstrates that Hermann Goering was more than the corrupt, indolent opportunist of legend: he was the archetype of the Nazi "New Man" - a committed ideologue, fiercely loyal to Hitler and willing to do absolutely anything in the quest to create the perfect Aryan empire.Overy traces Goering's rise from his days as a combat aviator in World War One (he left the service a highly decorated but disaffected war hero), through his election to the Reichstag, where he laid the groundwork for Hitler's power grab, to his heyday as Hitler's heir apparent, commander of the Luftwaffe and absolute ruler of the nazi economy. He examines Goering's many failures as an administrator and explains how these failures contributed to fatal flaws in the vaunted Nazi war machine.
This remarkably detailed and chilling expose also reveals the arrogance, self-delusion, and wishful thinking that enabled Goering to cling to the Nazi ideal even during his trial at Nuremberg and, perhaps, even as he committed suicide the night before his scheduled execution. Goering provides a new an unsettling dimension to our understanding of how Fascist regimes seize and cling to power.