The New York Times reviewed a new book about Hitler this week, Volker Ullrich’ Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939. But the piece, written by Michiko Kakutani, reads more like a stern warning about the threat of a Donald Trump presidency. “Mr. Ullrich,” Kakutani writes, “provides vivid insight into some factors that helped turn a ‘Munich rabble-rouser’ — regarded by many as a self-obsessed ‘clown’ with a strangely ‘scattershot, impulsive style’ — into ‘the lord and master of the German Reich.'”
Kakutani goes on to compose a bullet point list of items that contributed to Hitler’s rise, many of which could easily double as criticisms of Trump.
https://twitter.com/jaysunsilver/status/781091809984479232
This @michikokakutani review of a new Hitler biography never mentions Trump by name but, well, you read it: https://t.co/l0as3CYPqX
— Jeremy Kahn (@jeremyakahn) September 28, 2016
Though the review doesn’t ever name Trump or refer to the 2016 presidential race at all, the list of attributes, attitudes, and stylistic choices speak for themselves. Some of her bullet points include:
- “A former finance minister wrote that Hitler ‘was so thoroughly untruthful that he could no longer recognize the difference between lies and truth’ and editors of one edition of Mein Kampf described it as a ‘swamp of lies, distortions, innuendoes, half-truths and real facts.'”
- “Hitler was an effective orator and actor … adept at assuming various masks and feeding off the energy of his audiences. Although he concealed his anti-Semitism beneath a ‘mask of moderation’ when trying to win the support of the socially liberal middle classes, he specialized in big, theatrical rallies staged with spectacular elements borrowed from the circus. Here, ‘Hitler adapted the content of his speeches to suit the tastes of his lower-middle-class, nationalist-conservative, ethnic-chauvinist and anti-Semitic listeners,’ Mr. Ullrich writes. He peppered his speeches with coarse phrases and put-downs of hecklers.
- “Hitler’s ascension was aided and abetted by the naïveté of domestic adversaries who failed to appreciate his ruthlessness and tenacity … Early on, revulsion at Hitler’s style and appearance, Mr. Ullrich writes, led some critics to underestimate the man and his popularity, while others dismissed him as a celebrity, a repellent but fascinating “evening’s entertainment.”
Read Kakutani’s full review here.
(Via New York Times & Washington Post)
