The Unfathomable Ascent

March 15, 2020
A history of the "stunning turn of events" that led to Hitler's dictatorship. That flamboyant men whom no one takes seriously become national leaders no longer surprises anyone, but Hitler's rise shocked everyone, and Range's lively addition to the groaning bookshelves on the F�hrer describes the critical years from 1919 to 1933. In 1919, a penniless immigrant from Austria but already a World War I veteran and fierce German nationalist, Hitler attended a meeting of the German Workers' Party, a tiny Munich group whose extreme views appealed to him. He joined, and his dazzling oratory quickly made him the party's leader and a Munich celebrity. By 1923, his party (now with "national socialist" added to its name) numbered over 50,000, and he launched his famous beer hall "putsch," which failed but produced a great deal of publicity. Released from prison at the end of 1924, he resumed party leadership. For the remainder of the relatively prosperous 1920s, Nazis remained a negligible political force, but Hitler's fierce anti-government, racist rhetoric kept them in the news. Matters changed when the Depression crushed Germany's economy. To worldwide amazement, the Nazis received 6.4 million votes in the 1930 election (eight times their 1928 total) and over 100 seats in the Reichstag. Their vote doubled again in 1932. Germany's leaders could no longer ignore the nation's largest political party, but Hitler refused any government position except chancellor. Finally, after nearly a year of national paralysis, conservative figures convinced themselves that they could control Hitler from subordinate positions in the cabinet, and he took office on Jan. 30, 1933. Every reader beginning this lucid, provocative history will want to know how such a fringe character with views abhorrent to educated citizens could become a national leader. Range provides the answer: persistence, luck, and an ignorant establishment--all qualities as common today as a century ago. A lucid account of a spectacular if disheartening success story. (8-page b/w insert; map; timeline; cast of characters)

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March 30, 2020
Journalist Range (1924) recounts Adolf Hitler’s rise to power from 1925 to 1933 in this rigorously detailed and dramatic account. After his imprisonment following the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler reentered the unstable political arena of Weimar Germany and enlisted a cadre of dedicated loyalists to reestablish authority over the Nazi Party. He traveled tirelessly across the country, delivering his nationalistic, anti-Semitic message to growing audiences in carefully staged events, and charmed wealthy benefactors, while remaining careful not to overplay his hand, as he’d done in 1923. When the Nazis won a plurality of the vote in a series of 1932 elections, establishment conservatives seeking to form a coalition government pressured president Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor of Germany, a move they thought would tame his political ambitions with “governing responsibilities.” But Hitler, with the help of Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, and others, exploited the 1933 Reichstag fire to suspend civil liberties and assert total control of the government. Range’s lengthy and fine-grained descriptions of the clandestine meetings and palace intrigues during late 1932 and early 1933 may be daunting for general readers, but he writes with verve and expertly mines German sources for telling details about the major players involved. This exhaustive account will enlighten even dedicated readers of WWII history. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.

April 10, 2020

Picking up the story he started in 1924: The Year that Made Hitler (2016), Range describes the near decade-long process (1924-33) that culminated in Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany. The author is particularly adept at describing the byzantine plot twists of Weimar politics that first brought Hitler to the point of political oblivion by 1928, only to see his fortunes rescued by the economic crisis of the Great Depression, which made Nazis a powerful political force in Germany. The depiction of the self-destruction of German democracy makes for sober reading. Range does not break any new historical ground, and periodically he makes broad assertions that, though attention-grabbing, are of questionable historical value. For example, it is unlikely that many historians would accept the assertion that the Nazi party was a "smoothly running political machine." VERDICT Despite a few missteps, Range exhibits a deft hand at keeping track of the multiple plot lines of German politics. This will be of interest to readers of his previous book and those looking for more insight into the beginnings of Hitler's rise to power.--Frederic Krome, Univ. of Cincinnati Clermont Coll.

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