Hitler: The Path to Power

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

``A highly readable account of a period many consider to be the most interesting of Hitler's tumultuous life, Flood's ( Lee: The Last Years ) book covers the years of political apprenticeship through the abortive Munich putsch , the months in prison and the first few days after his release in 1924,'' reported PW . (Apr.)

Library Journal

This well-written popular narrative resembles John Toland's Adolf Hitler ( LJ 8/76) in focusing on events rather than analysis. Its more limited scope enables Flood to integrate a lucid discussion of the Nazi party's confusing early years with an impressionistic account of the conditions in Germany that contributed to the party's survival. Flood is best known for works on U.S. history. His acknowledgements and his references indicate a limited command of the German language and of German sources. He nevertheless succeeds in establishing Hitler as benefiting above all from his own sense of purpose at a time when his rivals and challengers were intellectually and morally adrift in the aftermath of a lost war and an incomplete revolution. Flood's book thus supersedes such previous surveys as John Dornberg's Munich 1923 (LJ 8/82).-- Dennis E. Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs

A wonderful book that is both less and more than a biography. It is incomplete as a biography, because it only covers the period from WWI to about 1924. However, within that time it examines not only Hitler but the times and conditions that allowed his ideas and meglomania to grow. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)