Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives
Forty years after his Hitler: A Study in Tyranny set a standard for scholarship of the Nazi era, Lord Alan Bullock gives readers a breathtakingly accomplished dual biography that places Adolf Hitler's origins, personality, career, and legacy alongside those of Joseph Stalin--his implacable antagonist and moral mirror image.\ \ Forty years after his Hitler: A Study in Tyranny set a standard for scholarship of the Nazi era, Lord Alan Bullock gives readers a...
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Forty years after his Hitler: A Study in Tyranny set a standard for scholarship of the Nazi era, Lord Alan Bullock gives readers a breathtakingly accomplished dual biography that places Adolf Hitler's origins, personality, career, and legacy alongside those of Joseph Stalin—his implacable antagonist and moral mirror image. Publishers Weekly The lives of, arguably, the 20th century's most evil dictators unfold in tandem in this continually absorbing masterpiece of historical exposition and the biographer's art, a History Book Club main selection in cloth. (Sept.)
AcknowledgmentsNote to the ReaderIntroduction1Origins3Stalin: 1879-1899, birth to age 19Hitler: 1889-1908, birth to age 192Experience18Stalin: 1899-1917, age 19-37Hitler: 1908-1918, age 19-293October Revolution, November Putsch49Stalin: 1917-1918, age 37-38Hitler: 1918-1923, age 29-344The General Secretary92Stalin: 1918-1924, age 38-445The Creation of the Nazi Party135Hitler: 1924-1930, age 35-416Lenin's Successor174Stalin: 1924-1929, age 44-507Hitler Within Sight of Power216Hitler: 1930-1933, age 41-438Stalin's Revolution256Stalin: 1928-1934, age 48-559Hitler's Revolution306Hitler: 1933-1934, age 43-4510Stalin and Hitler Compared347Hitler and Stalin: late 193411The Fuhrer State423Hitler: 1934-1938, age 45-4912The Revolution, Like Saturn, Devours Its Children461Stalin: 1934-1939, age 54-59131918 Revoked517Hitler and Stalin: 1934-1938Hitler: age 44-49, Stalin: age 54-5914The Nazi-Soviet Pact564Hitler and Stalin: March 1938-August 1939Hitler: age 48-50, Stalin: age 58-5915Hitler's War632Hitler and Stalin: 1939-1941Hitler: age 50-52, Stalin: age 59-6216Hitler's New Order693Hitler and Stalin: 1939-1942Hitler: age 50-53, Stalin: age 59-6317Stalin's War784Hitler and Stalin: 1943-1944Hitler: age 53-55, sTALIN: age 63-6518Hitler's Defeat846Hitler and Stalin: 1944-1945Hitler: age 55-56, Stalin: age 64-6519Stalin's New Order894Stalin: 1945-1953, age 65-7320Perspective9701930-1990Appendices981Notes993Abbreviations and Glossary1027Selected Bibliography1035Index1059
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ The lives of, arguably, the 20th century's most evil dictators unfold in tandem in this continually absorbing masterpiece of historical exposition and the biographer's art, a History Book Club main selection in cloth. (Sept.)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalThis is a huge and masterful dual biography of two of the most monstrous personalities of this century. Bullock, whose Hitler: A Study in Tyranny ( LJ 2/15/64) truly deserves its designation as a classic, has produced a smoothly written study of how these two lives ran parallel and how they intertwined to affect the lives of millions in the first half of this century. One would expect Bullock to know Hitler, but his grasp of Stalin and his times is also impressive. In chapters alternately dealing with Hitler and then Stalin, Bullock analyzes how each man achieved and then used power for his own twisted goals. It is chilling to realize that both men rose within legitimate institutions, each ``playing the game'' by the established rules. Hitler's evil empire collapsed with his death, Stalin's would live on to haunt the Soviet Union for decades. Essential for anyone seeking to understand the history of the West in this century. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/91.-- Ed Goedeken, Purdue Univ. Libs., West Lafayette, Ind.\ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsA masterpiece by Bullock (Ernest Bevin, 1984, etc.) that covers some of the most devastating events—as well as two of the most terrible personalities—of our century with breathtaking analytical power and narrative sweep. One of the most fruitful aspects of this dual biography is to reveal, for all the differences between Hitler and Stalin, how much they had in common. The differences were mainly in personality: Stalin the great calculator, Hitler the gambler; Stalin the master of bureaucracy, Hitler the artist-politician, hating routine; Stalin the sly, political Houdini, Hitler the charismatic leader. But their similarities were perhaps more significant. Both were guilty of crimes against humanity on a scale unprecedented in history: Like the Jews in Germany, peasant farmers in the Soviet Union were members of an outlawed class denied all human rights. The corruption in the heart of Nazism, according to Bullock, lay in its ends; in Communism, in its means. Neither Hitler nor Stalin, he believes, was mad. Both were entirely serious about their historic roles, the author says; skeptical about the motives of others, their cynicism stopped short of their own. But Hitler, at the end, was close to insanity; and Stalin had all the symptoms associated with paranoia—chronic suspicion, self-absorption, jealousy, hypersensitivity, and megalomania. Both men brought unprecedented suffering on their own people; the difference, Bullock notes, is that defeat exacted a terrible price from the German people, but at least spared them the continuation of Nazism, while victory cost the Russian people even more—but did not liberate them. A magnificent history, accessible andoften moving. Bullock's mastery of research sources, his judgment, and his analytic powers prove him one of the great historians of our time. (Seventy-one photographs and 18 maps—not seen.)\ \
