Hitler; A Study in Tyranny

New York: HarperPerennial, 1962. Abridged Edition. First HarperPerennial Edition. Second printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Good. ix, [5], 489, [7] pages. Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock, FBA (13 December 1914 - 2 February 2004) was a British historian. He is best known for his book Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952) which was the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler and influenced many other major biographies of Hitler. After graduating in 1938, he worked as a research assistant for Winston Churchill, who was writing his History of the English-Speaking Peoples. During World War II, Bullock worked for the European Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). After the war, he returned to Oxford as a history fellow at New College. He was the censor of St. Catherine's Society (1952-1962) and then founding master of St. Catherine's College, Oxford (1962-1981), a college for undergraduates and graduates, divided between students of the sciences and the arts. Later, he was the first full-time Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. In 1952, Bullock published Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler, which he based on the Nuremberg Trials. This book dominated Hitler scholarship for many years. The book characterized Hitler as a power politician. In Bullock's opinion, Hitler was an opportunistic adventurer devoid of principles, beliefs or scruples whose actions throughout his career were motivated only by a lust for power. Bullock's views led in the 1950s to a debate with Hugh Trevor-Roper who argued that Hitler did possess beliefs, albeit repulsive ones, and that his actions were motivated by them. Bullock's Guardian obituary commented that "Bullock's famous maxim 'Hitler was jobbed into power by backstairs intrigue' has stood the test of time." John Campbell wrote of Hitler: A Study in Tyranny: "Although written so soon after the end of the war and despite a steady flow of fresh evidence and reinterpretation, it has not been surpassed in nearly 40 years: an astonishing achievement." Derived from a Kirkus review: With its penetrating use of relatively new source material, its well sustained narrative, its deep concentration on the man, this has proven to be one of the best studies of Hitler. The author has a fine record as an Oxford historian, and states as his aim the determination of Hitler's fantastic wielding of power. He does this chronologically and with a sense of episode that makes every word readable and that brings the historical background into clear relief. The survey of Hitler's parentage is explicit as the possible emotional causes of his fanaticism, his utterly frustrated attitude toward the Germanic status quo that made him into the lying, brutal conniver who "acknowledged no masters". A lengthy follow-up takes him and his generating, generated causes through first post-WWI attempts, failure in the twenties, the depression in 1930 that swung the balance needle in his favor and allowed him successes by putsch, chancellorship, speech, extermination and invasion. Intensive examination of roles played by his henchmen, military and economic factions, and foreign negligence further clarify the techniques of lie and propaganda. A familiar period that deserves the re-emphasis and reinterpretation it gets here. A for workers in the field.