Negative Positive
Title: As much a biography of Germany as of Hitler
Review: I'm a big fan of biographies, and this remains (some 10 years after reading it) one of my favorites. There is no dearth of books on Hitler, of course. Fest's accomplishment here is that each section on Hitler is straddled by a section describing other events in the world and Germany, always giving the reader a larger context in which Hitler's activities can be placed.I'm a little dismayed by [people] who suggest that Hitler was merely a sufferer of post-traumatic-stress syndrome after his experience in the trenches of WWI, and that Fest does a disservice (to Hitler?) by leaving this information out. But many people have suffered in the trenches in many wars without later moving on to attempt world domination and genocide.In any case, Fest's biography omits nothing. It is written in a clear, beautiful language, and will leave you with an entirely new understanding of Hitler, Germans and Germany.
Is the review positive or negative? 