#81, "Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography"

"Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography"
By John Toland

This is by far the largest book I have read this year; probably it will remain the largest as I go through the remainder of the year. Toland tells the story, year by year, month by month, day by day, and occasionally hour-by-hour, of Adolf Hitler: his origins, his childhood, his formative teenage years, experiences in the First World War, his pledge to join politics, his rise to power as head of the National Socialist Party, his leadership of Germany as chancellor and Fuhrer, the actions that he took to lead to the Second World War, and finally the inevitable defeat of Germany and his suicide in the final year of the war. The amount of information is staggering, as is Toland's exquisite attention to detail. He leverages historical documents, public domain as well as personal interviews, photographs, personal letters and government paperwork to bring every point of Hitler's life to light. There is almost no editorializing, speculating, or prescribing. Toland is a pure scholar, and faithfully reports facts. You can really feel his painstaking devotion to presenting each moment as an artifact, without allowing his subjective opinions to color it. He achieves this scholarly aim as well as any historian can. In fact, occasionally you think, "Good God, he has to have a comment on THIS insanity." But he rarely comments at all. I think that puts the burden of opinion, on analysis and critique, on the reader. You aren't told how to think. You are given facts, and expected to come to your own conclusions. That makes for a great history.

Hitler was fanatical. That word is used over and over again in the book to describe his thoughts, motivations, and deeds. Once he had decided the path his life would take, he followed it with incredible, unyielding passion and drive. The result is that his life is, arguably, the most influential single life that existed in the 20th century. Without Hitler, Germany would have taken much longer to recover in the aftermath of World War I. Without Hitler, National Socialism would have been just one of hundreds of insignificant political parties in the 1920's and 30's that sought to reclaim Germany's former glory and re-establish her place in the global community. Without Hitler, the names Goering, Goebbels, and Himmler would all be standard German names, without their modern historical weight. The United States as it stands today would not exist, as its current status as a superpower was born in the destruction of the WWII. Paradoxically, as Toland points out, the Jewish state of Israel would probably not exist without the turmoil brought on by Hitler's extreme antiSemitism and the Holocaust. These things, and a thousand others, mark Hitler's life as one of distinction. He changed the course of history. Persistence makes a difference, and I think there must be some lesson in the unrelenting doggedness of his fanaticism. If only those who seek truth, justice, goodness, righteousness were so unmovingly driven! What might be done in such a life? As it was, his crusade was one of death, of suffering, of horrifying tragedy at every level. The dangers of fanaticism are as clear to see as the benefits.

I had so many thoughts as I read this book and learned about this man, possibly the most reviled name in any tongue and in any history. One thing I wanted to say that stood out to me was on the nature of national pride. Today, we hear lots of talk of patriotism, of being proud of our country and our heritage. Proud to be an American, we say. I see in the life of Hitler the dangerous extreme of nationalism, an extreme that, as I analyze the world day by day, becomes more and more normalized in America. We should--no, we must make ourselves cognizant of where national pride can lead to if not held in check. Hitler thought first and only of his people; their racial purity and supposed superiority to other peoples, their economy and borders at the expense of other nations, Germany-first, Germany-only. His message of victimhood resonated with the common people of Germany in 1924. His party, rooted in Germany pride, went from less than a dozen people to over half of the country in less than ten years. It then devastated the entire world. National pride can bring us community and common goals. It gives us protection, and it recognizes the sacrifices made in order to bring us to where we exist today. Yet when it brings a nation to the point of despising other peoples, it cannot anymore be legitimized. In this time of flux and continuous change, we are not merely citizens of one nation. We are truly citizens of the world. We must take the lessons of Nazi Germany--the lessons of history--and apply them to our our times, or else we fall in danger of following in similar paths. National pride is shameful if your nation exists only to belittle, subjugate, and control others. Therefore be wary of being too proud of your nation. I say this especially as a Christian, and now I write to the Christian reading this: We are first citizens of heaven, not of any arbitrary borders written by man. Do not allow blind nationalism to distract you from your true citizenship. Hitler wanted to rekindle Germany's greatness after being "betrayed" by world. His nationalist spirit controlled his every move, and led to horrors the earth has yet to recover from.

The Eve of War

I am a little over halfway through this biography, and am now just to the events of summer 1938 to August 1939--those leading to the very edge of what would become the most destructive war in human history. I am struck by Hitler's success in essentially blackmailing the world, in order to annex first Austria, then the German-Czechoslovakian territory of the Sudetenland, and then Czechoslovakia itself, all in the space of less than a year. The European nations were so afraid of another war, such as what they endured in 1914-18, that they sought appeasement at nearly all costs. The result, of course, was only to strengthen Germany's position and truly set the stage for the next conflict.

I think there's a lesson there.

#79: "Band of Brothers"

"Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest"

Stephen Ambrose

For me, Ambrose is the premiere American historian of World War II. I distinctly remember borrowing a huge WWII book by Ambrose from the library when I was young, poring over the pictures, trying to make sense of the stories. The battles, the heroes and villains, the technology, the different and evocative locations, the world-changing events all tied together by a master scholar made for a defining moment in my education and life. This book follows a particular story: the path of a single paratrooper company, Easy, from its inception in 1942 to its disbanding, almost exactly 3 years later, in 1945. In that time, the men underwent training as an experimental parachute infantry company, waited for their premiere in Britain in the early part of 1944, were part of the invasion force at Normandy, participated in campaigns in the Netherlands, in Belgium at the Battle of the Bulge, and at the end of the war were part of the occupying force in the German mountains. In those 3 years, and especially in the year of active duty starting in summer 1944, the men saw war and overcame challenges that few others can boast to. They were an integral and consequential part of the final push to victory. I wonder how many other companies had stories like that of E Company, 506th Regiment, that haven't been told. I also suspect that in hearing this singular story, we gain a partial, fractional glimpse into those of others.

The book is easily read. Ambrose has a conversational style, and a historian's objectivity, carefully framing each event like a filmmaker. He focuses on the people in each moment, their relationships and actions. There is less emphasis on the larger picture; that is not the point. He presents E Company as it was, in its heroic moments as well as its mistakes. We are not meant to consider this an angelic group, but as a brotherhood that fought for each other despite its weaknesses. #whatIreadin2017

#74, "The Art of War"

"The Art of War"
Sun Tzu

I have been wanting to read this for years. When I was a teenager, I saw it somewhere--maybe the library--and the idea of an ancient text that offered knowledge and wisdom and pro tips on battle and war was enticing. It seemed cool, in a word. Plus I heard that businessmen and politicians had referenced it for their endeavors, something that I didn't think all the way through philosophically at the time and had no problem with.

Now, fifteen years later, I can say that it is fairly dull. I don't know much about modern military tactics, but I don't think the ability to read enemy movements by watching dust on the horizon is up to the standards of the 21st century. Of course I joke here. There is interesting content, especially when you consider the age of the writings--according to Wikipedia, there were compiled about 500 BC--that I suppose can have implications for modern military or business people. The opening section, which outlines basic foundations for warfare, is great stuff when applied to debate, to politics, and to a general understanding of warfare. I reckon some people employ these tactics in relationships, too, though I wouldn't say that is a great way to win friends. As the tract progresses, the prescriptions become less practical and more inconsequential. Overall, the effect is much like any self-help book: take what seems to apply to you, and ditch the rest.

My biggest takeaway is that Sun Tzu is pronounced, "shinswuh". So now at a dinner party you can correct the ignorant savage who says, "Ever read that book by Suhn Zoo?"

#73, "Nazism and War"

"Nazism and War"

Richard Bessel

"Nazism was inseparable from war." Bessel begins with this statement, one that ties every page of the text to the next, unified in perspective and goal. The book is made of four essays that trace, in turn, the development of Nazism following the First World War, the sudden growth of the ideology and its rapid and unfaltering advancement toward war, the brutal and bloody cost of Nazism in the course of the Second World War, and finally the aftermath of the war, especially in Germany. It is an exhausting, draining book--mentally and emotionally tiring to read the descent into insanity and evil that engulfed the world, and to consider the terrifying way it all began. Hitler vowed revenge from his cell in 1918, at the end of WW1, writing in his manifesto/autobiography "Mein Kampf" of Germany's vengeance upon its enemies, especially "international Jewry". This pledge carried him and his ideals to their conclusion.

Bessel is an excellent writer and an extraordinary scholar. I was astounded, for one thing, at the depth and breadth of his citations--hundreds and hundreds of end-of-text notes, in perfect detail and with full references to sources. His work is enviably well-researched. I have read some criticism of his writing style, which occasionally indulges in lengthy and wordy sentences and paragraphs. However, I found his writing fresh and very readable, as long as I was concentrating.

In the end, my biggest takeaway from this book was that Nazism, whose beginning and end was racist war, was not forced upon those who wore the swastika. It was insidiously embraced by the people, who voted--actually freely chose--to give up their freedom, dissolve the democratic system, and assume a position and take a path that led to the murder of millions. We must learn the lessons of history, 70 years later. We must be wary of charismatic but characterless leaders who hide poisoned tongues with words of honey. We must guard our freedom jealously, and seek to bring freedom to others. It is our lot to protect the weak, to decry violence, to celebrate goodness and stamp out evil. To do otherwise is to open ourselves again to horrors too many have seen.

#whatIreadin2017

#48m, "Seizing the Enigma"

"Seizing The Enigma: The Race To Break The German U-boat Codes, 1939-1943"

David Kahn

A fascinating account of the famous German Enigma code machine, as used by the Third Reich before and during the Second World War. Kahn relates the history of the machine as well as techniques and trends in cryptology--codes and codebreaking--starting around the turn of the 20th century. The story follows a several groups of cryptologists and mathematicians who were up against the most advanced cipher creator in history up to that point.

In the past, secret codes had been constructed using more or less simple word and letter replacement techniques. An elementary example of a coding technique would be to assign each letter in the alphabet to some other letter (A= R, B = M, C = E, and so on). A message could then be enciphered using this alternate alphabet, called a cipher key, and deciphered using the same key by the message recipient. This method had many flaws, however, and was easily cracked using rudimentary statistical and linguistic techniques. Even more advanced ways of coding messages still fell back on this basic premise. The Enigma machine, however, used a combination of mechanical and electrical elements to create ciphers that were, ostensibly, unbreakable. These elements have been calculated to provide a military-grade Enigma machine, as used on German U-boats in WW2, with about 156 quintillion possible code cipher combinations. That is what Polish and British (and to a lesser extent American) cryptologists were up against as they sought to break German codes during the war. The story of how they both failed and succeeded, and the accompanying tales including battles, high-stakes raids, military and political hubris, and determination makes for a rewarding read.

The book is extremely detailed and well-researched. The mathematical parts, and the technical descriptions of the working of the machine, is difficult for a layperson like me to follow, but still highly interesting. One of the highlights of my reading so far this year.

#whatIreadin2017