Goebbels

March 2, 2015
Longerich (The Unwritten Order), a historian of modern Germany at Royal Holloway University of London, explores in depth three aspects of the career and life of the Third Reich’s infamous minister of propaganda: “his development from a failed writer and intellectual to a Nazi agitator”; his “efforts... to introduce uniformity into the media, cultural life, and the public sphere”; and his “role as a wartime propagandist and advocate of ‘total war.’ ” He labels Goebbels a narcissist, an “ice-cold evil genius” who uncritically idolized Hitler for embodying the “German soul.” The book’s greatest strength—and greatest weakness—lies in Longerich’s deep explorations of the most intimate and specific aspects of Goebbels’s personal life. Readers get a clear window on his perspective, but a broader context is often lacking. Some sections are packed with excessive description, though when Longerich writes of Goebbels’s attempts in 1945 to maintain popular morale—even as a German defeat in WWII grew imminent—he lacks solid details on the state of the population’s collective consciousness. Longerich is a master of portraying the Nazi leadership and its infighting, if not a particularly colorful writer. This biography is now the definitive work on Goebbels in English, and will be of major interest to scholars and serious students of the Third Reich.

March 1, 2015
Thoroughly researched, massive biography of one of the chief powers behind Hitler's throne.It is perhaps literature's loss, but certainly humankind's, that Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) abandoned his attempts to make a living as a writer and instead attached himself to the firebrand-cum-spectacle Hitler. As Goebbels, in an early, mawkish piece, wrote, "All modern artists...are to a greater or lesser degree insane-like all of us who have active minds." As is his custom, Longerich (Modern German History/Royal Holloway Univ. of London; Heinrich Himmler: A Life, 2012) draws on psychology to characterize Goebbels as a classic narcissist, though one of real ability and accomplishment. He may not have been a first-rate writer, but he had a sharp mind and a strong sense of resolve, all of which he put to use as the Nazi state's chief propagandist. In the first third of the book, the author charts the development of that ideology and the growing connection between Hitler and Goebbels, a friendship that suffered from tensions that haunted the lieutenant. As he wrote in 1934, "Fuhrer does not call at supper time. We have the feeling that somebody is influencing him against us. We are both very pained by it. Go to bed with a heavy heart." Hitler must have had other things on his mind, and though often slighted, Goebbels proved a loyal assistant. Of particular interest is Longerich's account, late in the book, of efforts among Hitler's chief aides to forge separate peace treaties with the soon-to-be-victorious Allies, with Goebbels angling for a concord with the Soviets. Close though Goebbels was to Hitler, he was never able to present the proposal, and the Nazis continued to wage a ruinous two-front war. A schemer and masterful manipulator, in short, Goebbels was seldom able to sway the chief object of his attention. Longerich's book is overly long and even plodding, but it is essential: it paints a definitive portrait of a man whose name has become a byword for complicit evil, and deservedly so.

June 1, 2015
With his complete control of the mass media, Joseph Goebbels was arguably the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. Unlike some of the other figures near the top of the Nazi pyramid, he remained sincerely and irrevocably devoted both to Hitler and to the ideology of National Socialism. Longerich's biography of Goebbels, who was derided by many as the malignant dwarf, is massive, ambitious, and often fascinating. Perhaps due to struggles with his deformed foot and other physical ailments, Goebbels, in Longerich's view, was a classic narcissistic personality who constantly sought affirmation by winning the approval of others, which could explain both his devotion to Hitler as well as his constant efforts to bed a variety of women. As Longerich acknowledges, his reliance on Goebbels' diaries as a primary source is problematic, since Goebbels' accounts of events and personalities seem designed to impress himself. Still Longerich's efforts to glean the truth from exaggerations and distortions are credible, and this is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the Nazi regime.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

March 15, 2015

Historian Longerich (history, Univ. of London; Holocaust) takes advantage of rarely utilized diaries and other sources to painstakingly document the life of Adolf Hitler's propaganda master and perhaps most loyal subordinate. The book balances its examination of Joseph Goebbels's professional and private life and proposes that his narcissism and obsession with recognition did not stem from his disability or relatively poor upbringing. The author instead argues that it was his inability to develop a sense of independence that led to a life of rabid loyalty to his dictator. Longerich expertly demonstrates how a petty mentality combined with brilliant powers of manipulation resulted in the development of a propaganda master capable of enthralling Germany into joining the Nazi movement, dehumanizing targets of the Holocaust, and sacrificing their very lives (he also gave his own) to the fuhrer he worshiped. This work is, by far, the most complete treatment of its subject to date and is likely to remain so for a long time. Goebbels (1897-1945) was a contemptible man in both personality and deed, and while his life never inspires true pity, Longerich does an excellent job of describing a man always doggedly pursuing the approval of someone; whether his mother, a girlfriend, the German populace, or Hitler. VERDICT Highly recommended for German, Holocaust, and World War II historians and readers, biography lovers, and those interested in marketing and propaganda history. [See Prepub Alert, 4/7/14.]--Benjamin Brudner, Curry Coll. Lib., Milton, MA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2014

Professor of Modern German History at Royal Holloway University of London, Longerich draws on Goebbels's diaries (while looking behind the self-propaganda of Hitler's minister of propaganda) to reveal a self-centered and manipulative fawner who helped bring death to millions because he craved approval.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2015

Historian Longerich (history, Univ. of London; Holocaust) takes advantage of rarely utilized diaries and other sources to painstakingly document the life of Adolf Hitler's propaganda master and perhaps most loyal subordinate. The book balances its examination of Joseph Goebbels's professional and private life and proposes that his narcissism and obsession with recognition did not stem from his disability or relatively poor upbringing. The author instead argues that it was his inability to develop a sense of independence that led to a life of rabid loyalty to his dictator. Longerich expertly demonstrates how a petty mentality combined with brilliant powers of manipulation resulted in the development of a propaganda master capable of enthralling Germany into joining the Nazi movement, dehumanizing targets of the Holocaust, and sacrificing their very lives (he also gave his own) to the fuhrer he worshiped. This work is, by far, the most complete treatment of its subject to date and is likely to remain so for a long time. Goebbels (1897-1945) was a contemptible man in both personality and deed, and while his life never inspires true pity, Longerich does an excellent job of describing a man always doggedly pursuing the approval of someone; whether his mother, a girlfriend, the German populace, or Hitler. VERDICT Highly recommended for German, Holocaust, and World War II historians and readers, biography lovers, and those interested in marketing and propaganda history. [See Prepub Alert, 4/7/14.]--Benjamin Brudner, Curry Coll. Lib., Milton, MA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.