This book details the lives of two profoundly evil individuals, Stalin and Hitler.  Both men seemed off to a good start, one in the war and as an artist and the other in the seminary.  Yet other issues dominated the childhood of these men that forced them into extremist polituics and eventually led them to mass murder.  Both were phenomenal politicians and able to lure their own collaborators to their doom.  An interesting way to present these two, by comparing and contrasting these similar lives that led too very different outcomes.
Now the writing itself is commendable and so are the parralells.  But the author should have written two biographies.  The only redemption this book has is that it shows how right wing facism is exactly the same as left wing liberalism(Communbism to be exact in this case).  Stalin and Hitler allthough they prported themselves to be on diffrent wings of the political spectrum were both monsters who crushed minorities and enslaved their own people.  They became allies in 1939 and the world shuddered with what these beasts could accomplish together, luckily for all of us Stalin and Hitler wasted the enslaved masses of their nations destorying eachother.  All the better for the Americans to pick up the pieces.
I would recommend Conquests' "Stalin breaker of Nations" and Kershaws two volume work on Hitler "Hubris" and "Nemisis".
This book details the lives of two profoundly evil individuals, Stalin and Hitler. Both men seemed off to a good start, one in the war and as an artist and the other in the seminary. Yet other issues dominated the childhood of these men that forced them into extremist polituics and eventually led them to mass murder. Both were phenomenal politicians and able to lure their own collaborators to their doom. An interesting way to present these two, by comparing and contrasting these similar lives that led too very different outcomes. Now the writing itself is commendable and so are the parralells. But the author should have written two biographies. The only redemption this book has is that it shows how right wing facism is exactly the same as left wing liberalism(Communbism to be exact in this case). Stalin and Hitler allthough they prported themselves to be on diffrent wings of the political spectrum were both monsters who crushed minorities and enslaved their own people. They became allies in 1939 and the world shuddered with what these beasts could accomplish together, luckily for all of us Stalin and Hitler wasted the enslaved masses of their nations destorying eachother. All the better for the Americans to pick up the pieces. I would recommend Conquests' "Stalin breaker of Nations" and Kershaws two volume work on Hitler "Hubris" and "Nemisis".