1924: The Year that Made Hitler
While most books about Hitler focus on WWII, Range’s book focuses primarily on a single, pivotal year. This year could have been the end of Hitler and his budding political career. After a failed attempt to take over the German government in the Beer Hall Putsch, he was sentenced to 13 months in Landsberg Prison. The Nazi party was in disarray after the putsch, and he might have been forgotten or remembered only as a failure, but he capitalized on this time to solidify his vision for Germany. In prison, held along with other putsch conspirators, he honed his speeches, cultivated friendships (Rudolf Hess’s cell was on the same floor, allowing him to become one of Hitler’s closest confidants and sounding board), and sat down to write his autobiography, the soon-to-be-central piece of Nazi propaganda, Mein Kampf.
One of the great lingering questions about Hitler is: why did so many people follow him? Range’s book provides valuable insight by tracing the events that led up to the creation of Hitler’s rhetoric. With Germany’s recent republication of Mein Kampf, understanding the circumstances that gave birth to it is very timely. This is truly an important book.