The "Hitler Myth"

Image and Reality in the Third Reich

By: Ian Kershaw

Narrated by: George Cunningham

Few, if any, 20th-century political leaders have enjoyed greater popularity among their own people than Hitler did in the decade or so following his rise to power in 1933. The personality of Hitler himself, however, can scarcely explain this immense popularity or his political effectiveness in the 1930s and '40s. His hold over the German people lay rather in the hopes and perceptions of the millions who adored him.

Based largely on the reports of government officials, party agencies, and political opponents, Ian Kershaw's groundbreaking study charts the creation, growth, and decline of the "Hitler myth". He demonstrates how the manufactured "Fuhrer-cult" served as a crucial integrating force within the Third Reich and a vital element in the attainment of Nazi political aims. Masters of the new techniques of propaganda, the Nazis used "image-building" to exploit the beliefs, phobias, and prejudices of the day. Kershaw greatly enhances our understanding of the German people's attitudes and behavior under Nazi rule and the psychology behind their adulation of Hitler.

©1987 Ian Kershaw (P)2021 Upfront Books

Can't Handle the Narration

I love Ian Kershaw's work, and was really looking forward to listening to this book, but the strange narrative performance is just impossible to listen to. The reader sounds like he's giving a speech. WAY too much energy and a strange cadence make this an impossible listen. I made it through 90 minutes or so and then had to bail out. Sadly not recommended at all.

Interesting explanation of Hitler’s amazing appeal

Ian Kershaw gives an interesting explanation for the amazing appeal of Adolph Hitler to a large number of the German people so that they willingly voted for the loss of their own rights and freedoms and doomed their country to the destruction of World War II.

Fascinating lens for analysis of the phenomena of the rise of the third reich

The performance was odd, declamatory. The upsode was that he made it reasonably easy to follow the long sentences with their multiple clauses. The political/psychological analysis is absorbing

Clone Grover Gardner

Cunningham isn’t a bad narrator. He doesn’t mispronounce words and is diction is good.

But he wears me out. I’d prefer he take a chill pill and relax.

Decent content, poor narrator

This book would have been an interesting read, but the narration distracts from the content.