Dewey Edition23
Reviews"Splendid" -The Sunday Telegraph "Longerich's study of Himmler's banal evil promises to bear the standard" --The Village Voice "A masterpiece." - Richard J. Evans, author ofThe Coming of the Third Reich, Excellent ... well crafted and engaging ... comfortably surpassing the offerings of previous biographers, it is surely set to become the definitive work for a generation., "[S]upremely enlightening." --Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times Book Review"Splendid" - The Sunday Telegraph"Longerich's study of Himmler's banal evil promises to bear the standard." --The Village Voice"A masterpiece." --Richard J. Evans, author of The Coming of the Third Reich"Peter Longerich, already the author of a distinguihed history of the Holocaust, has written a biography that tells us everything that the world could ever need to know about this most terrible, yet dreery, of Hitler's creatures....an authoritative record."--Max Hastings, NYORB"A remarkable and wholly fascinating new book by Peter Longerich, a German historian who is among the world's leading scholars of the Holocaust and the Third Reich." --Jewish Journal, "Splendid" -The Sunday Telegraph "Longerich's study of Himmler's banal evil promised to bear the standard --The Village Voice "A masterpiece." - Richard J. Evans, author ofThe Coming of the Third Reich, Review from previous edition: "Both as a biography of the man and an analysis of the role of the SS in Nazi Germany, Longerich's book is unlikely to be surpassed for a long time" --Neue Zurcher Zeitung, There have been several studies of this enigmatic man, but Peter Longerich's massive biography, grounded in exhaustive study of the primary sources, is now the standard work and must stand alongside Ian Kershaw's Hitler, Ulrich Herbert's Best and Robert Gerwarth's Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich as one of the landmark Nazi biographies. As the author of a celebrated study of the Holocaust, Longerich is better able than his predecessors to situateHimmler within the vast machinery of genocide. And he brings to his task a gift for capturing those mannerisms that are the intimate markers of personality., "Splendid" -The Sunday Telegraph "A masterpiece." - Richard J. Evans, author ofThe Coming of the Third Reich, [The book's] bulk is consummate with the seriousness of its subject matter and, as the definitive life if this why-faced monster of terror, it is unlikely to be bettered., "[S]upremely enlightening." --Jacob Heilbrunn,The New York Times Book Review "Splendid" -The Sunday Telegraph "Longerich's study of Himmler's banal evil promises to bear the standard." --The Village Voice, "Longerich manages to combine the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider institutional context in a unique way, and in doing so provides a startling insight into the broader history of the Nazi dictatorship" --Der Neue Tag, 23.09.2010, There have been many attempts to describe the life and opinions of Heinrich Himmler, but this one ... is the first thorough scholarly biography to appear, "[S]upremely enlightening." --Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times Book Review "Splendid" - The Sunday Telegraph "Longerich's study of Himmler's banal evil promises to bear the standard." --The Village Voice "A masterpiece." --Richard J. Evans, author of The Coming of the Third Reich "Peter Longerich, already the author of a distinguihed history of the Holocaust, has written a biography that tells us everything that the world could ever need to know about this most terrible, yet dreery, of Hitler's creatures....an authoritative record."--Max Hastings, NYORB "A remarkable and wholly fascinating new book by Peter Longerich, a German historian who is among the world's leading scholars of the Holocaust and the Third Reich." --Jewish Journal, 'Review from previous edition Both as a biography of the man and an analysis of the role of the SS in Nazi Germany, Longerich's book is unlikely to be surpassed for a long time 'Neue Zürcher Zeitung'Longerich manages to combine the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider institutional context in a unique way, and in doing so provides a startling insight into the broader history of the Nazi dictatorship 'Der Neue Tag, 23.09.2010
SynopsisHeinrich Himmler was an unremarkable looking man. Yet he was Hitler's top enforcer, in charge of the Gestapo, the SS, and the so-called Final Solution. We can only wonder, as biographer Peter Longerich asks, how could such a banal personality attain such a historically unique position of power? How could the son of a prosperous Bavarian Catholic public servant become the organizer of a system of mass murder spanning the whole of Europe? In the first comprehensive biography of this murderous enigma, Longerich answers those questions with a superb account of Himmler's inner self and outward acts. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship, Longerich shows how skillfully he exploited and manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching and grandiose objectives. Himmler's actual strength, he writes, consisted in redrawing every two or three years the master plans for his sphere of power. Himmler expanded that sphere with ruthless efficiency. In 1929, he took the SS-a small bodyguard unit-and swelled it into a paramilitary organization with elite pretensions. By the end of 1934 he had become Reich Chief of the Political Police, and began to consolidate all police power in his own hands. As Germany grabbed neighboring territory, he expanded the Waffen SS and organized the "Germanization" of conquered lands, which culminated in systematic mass murder. When the regime went on the defensive in 1942, Himmler changed his emphasis again, repressing any opposition or unrest. The author emphasizes the centrality of Himmler's personality to the Nazi murder machine-his surveillance of the private lives of his men, his deep resentments, his fierce prejudices-showing that man and position were inseparable. Carefully researchedand lucidly written, Heinrich Himmler is the essential account of the man who embodied Hitler's apparatus of evil., The first-ever comprehensive biography of Heinrich Himmler, SS-Reichsfuhrer, Nazi Interior Minister, and Chief of Police, whose name has become a byword for the terror, persecution, and destruction that characterized the Third Reich., As head of the SS, chief of police, "Reichskommissar for the Consolidation of Germanness", and Reich Interior Minister, Heinrich Himmler enjoyed a position of almost unparalleled power and responsibility in Nazi Germany. Perhaps more than any other single Nazi leader aside from Hitler, his name has become a byword for the terror, persecution, and destruction that characterized the Third Reich. His wide-ranging powers meant that he bore equal responsibility for the repression of the German people on the home front and the atrocities perpetrated by the SS in the East. Yet, in spite of his central role in the crimes of the Nazi regime, until now Himmler has remained a colourless and elusive figure in the history of the period.In this, the first-ever comprehensive biography of the SS-Reichsführer, leading German historian Peter Longerich puts every aspect of Himmler's life under the microscope. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship, Longerich shows how skilfully he exploited and manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching and grandiose objectives. In the process, he illuminates the extraordinary degree to which Himmler's own personal prejudices, idiosyncrasies, and predilections made their mark on the organizations for which he was responsible - especially the SS, which in so many ways bore the characteristic hallmarks of its leader, and whose history remains both incomplete and incomprehensible without a detailed and intimate knowledge of its deeply sinister commander-in-chief., As head of the SS, chief of police, 'Reichskommissar for the Consolidation of Germanness', and Reich Interior Minister, Heinrich Himmler enjoyed a position of almost unparalleled power and responsibility in Nazi Germany. Perhaps more than any other single Nazi leader aside from Hitler, his name has become a byword for the terror, persecution, and destruction that characterized the Third Reich. His wide-ranging powers meant that he bore equal responsibility for the repression of the Germanpeople on the home front and the atrocities perpetrated by the SS in the East. Yet, in spite of his central role in the crimes of the Nazi regime, until now Himmler has remained a colourless and elusive figure in the history of the period.In this, the first-ever comprehensive biography of the SS-Reichsf hrer, leading German historian Peter Longerich puts every aspect of Himmler's life under the microscope. Masterfully interweaving the story of Himmler's personal life and political career with the wider history of the Nazi dictatorship, Longerich shows how skilfully he exploited and manipulated his disparate roles in the pursuit of his far-reaching and grandiose objectives. In the process, he illuminates the extraordinarydegree to which Himmler's own personal prejudices, idiosyncrasies, and predilections made their mark on the organizations for which he was responsible - especially the SS, which in so many ways bore the characteristic hallmarks of its leader, and whose history remains both incomplete and incomprehensiblewithout a detailed and intimate knowledge of its deeply sinister commander-in-chief.
LC Classification NumberDD247