Adolph Hitler And The Shape Of History

We owe to Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson the observation that all history is biography. Some folks may argue with that, but OTR thinks the distillation of history indeed yields the stories of men and women, both great and small, living their lives as participant-observers in the world. Norman Stone has a review in The Wall Street Journal addressing this issue and some new research by Brigette Hamann and Thomas Weber. In their recent books, they have brought to light some fascinating details about the shaping of one of the twentieth century's most complex personalities, Adolph Hitler. And in their search for truth they correct the record and provide some much needed direction:

It is very much to Mr. Weber's credit that he has managed to dig out the details, and we can place his book together with Ms. Hamann's as a triumph of original research in a very stony field. The conclusion that might be drawn is that Hitler was far more of the opportunist than is generally supposed. He made things up as he went along, including his own past. If we still haven't answered the question of what turned Hitler into an anti-Semitic idealogue, at least attention has been shifted to the Bavarian years of 1919-22. Ms. Hamann and Mr. Weber point the way forward for the next scholar's diligent researches.

Sound scholarship makes useful history. OTR hopes these authors continue to make lasting contributions to the field of history. Who knows, perhaps someone will write their biography someday.

Source: Jonah Goldberg, The Corner, NRO