I was watching a show on History Channel about the final days of WWII, and they mentioned Hitler’s book. I was wondering if anyone had read it, if it was still available in print, and what they thought of it.
I heard an UL about some American publishers that tried to get it released here, before the war broke out, in an attempt to show America what Hitler was planning, but I don’t know if that’s true or not.
I read a version of it some 25 or so years ago. (Not sure if it was an official translation or not.)
He really surprised me by having Darth Vader turn out to be Luke’s father.
Okay, okay. I found it dull, tedious, and disjointed. For the life of me, I can’t remember any specific ideas or ideals laid down.
Its still available, I bought a copy for myself about 6 months ago because somebody told me it was a must read. I haven’t even opened it yet.
The main reason I got it was that some guy had told me it was a must read for anyone truly interested in modern history (which I most assuredly am).
I should’ve shot that guy.
I’m off to find some online cliff’s notes type site, see it anything jogs my memory. (It must have been pretty unremakable for me not to remember any specifics. I have a damn good memory for the written word, generally.)
I’ve considered reading it, but I’m reluctant to check it out from my local library or buy it on my credit card, for the obvious reason that I could be labeled a nazi nutjob by the local police or feds. Is my tinfoil showing?
It is excruciatingly dull and badly written, combining the worst aspects of German literary style with the added unpleasantness of knowing that he means every word.
But you have to give him credit - he lays out pretty clearly what he wants to do. No one can say they weren’t warned.
The part I remember best is a rant on syphilis and how he wants to wipe it out.
But the book seems endless. And not nearly as well-written, if you can call it that, as the Volkische Beobachter, some issues of which I have also read.
But it is very tough going, especially in light of knowledge of later events.
Regards,
Shodan
SHHH, you can pay cash for it at most any good-sized bookstore. That way it will not show up on the Orwellian databases, circa 1984. Well, maybe not in Salt Lake City. I’d send you my 30-year-old copy but I may yet find time to open it.
The others have said it. It is looong. It was written in German and translation to English could not have helped it much. Further it was written in a very old-fashioned way. A tough slog.
Rambling, disjointed, it would make good evidence in court that the author could not string thoughts along coherently. It reminded me of the Unibomber’s manifesto is some unexplainable way.
I had to read excepts of it for my German Modern History Course in University. Yagg it is quite a nasty piece of work when he discusses his views on all non German types especially the Jews.
Mopstly it is boring and is more of a meandering series of rants. Imagine someone publishing some looney’s blog and removing all the CAPITALIZATION ON EVERYTHING and fixing some of the grammer and spelling you come close.
This horribly written book would have long ago disapeared from the bargin bins of history had it not been Hitler’s blueprint for Nazi Germany.
That is the only thing that makes this book remotely of interest.
I found a copy of the book, in the original German, on my great-grandmother’s bookshelves when we were cleaning her home out after her death. I opened it, and found she had made many notes in the margin in spidery Fraktur handwriting, but as a neatly-monolingual 14 year old I couldn’t read the notes or for that matter the book itself. I wish I could have, or that I had found it while she was still alive so I could have asked her about it. All I could tell is that there were several places she had just written a single exclamation point.
Didn’t look worn at all - I don’t think she read it more than once.
i have it. sitting in the bookshelf. unread.
I had to read some parts of it for my Western Civ class in 1983. It was full of ridiculous assertions and made little sense. In fact it made so little sense that I thought I was going crazy when I read it–until I remembered who wrote it.
Got it at a used book sale a few years back, never have read it. From the desciptions here, sounds much like the writing style of Lyndon LaRouche (BIG surprise there!)
Btw, I’ve heard that Tom Braden was successfully sued by Hitler or his German publisher for copyright infringement when Braden translated MEIN KAMPF for English publication to show the world what Hitler was planning.
This Pit thread and the link in the OP might be of some interest.
I have a copy. I took a “Hitler and Nazi Germany” class in college and it was recommended reading.
I didn’t read much.
I read it out of curiosity in high school. It’s excruciatingly boring. If you want to find out what it’s like to be entirely and perfectly self-centered, look no further. I hear you can’t buy it in Germany, though; in college my Holocaust class professor tried to get German copies in modern typeface for the Language Across the Curriculum students (you get an extra hour of credit for doing some of the work in a foreign language - I did it wiht Latin in a class on myth) and found that it was impossible to get.
I read it, and I’m glad I did. I definitely didn’t find it boring.
I read it as part of a Western Civ class in college. I thought it was incredibly funny how demonized the text is; while I do not agree with the text myself, it was the one text in college that even the professor would not analyze on any form of rational basis. Instead, it was a terrified series of attacks about how the everything in the book was flawed, the writing was terrible, there was no real reason to study it, the man was a monster, every last part of logic in the text was flawed beyond human comprehension, Hitler in no way represented the Germans (this last part was hilarious, as the professor was a native German and clearly had some baggage that was tainting his analysis). I thought it was sad that we had to content ourselves with thoughtlessly calling everything about Hitler monstrous, without actually analyzing it or studying it to find out why such an obviously stupid man who wrote so poorly and had such fundamentally poor logic swayed millions of people.
Myself, I thought the logical progression in the book was fine and made sense. If there truly was a destructive force at work insiduously eating away at your way of life and society, and trying to sabotage your nation for dark purposes, you should react and remove the threat.
The problem is that his baseline assumption that the Jews were that evil dark force (behind the stab in the back, Bolshevism, etc.) was without basis. In other words, you can be right on the analysis of what to do if a problem exists, but be wrong in carrying out the analysis because you are a nutball who made up the problem (Jews) in your own head. I think that is partially why he swayed so many people; the answer made sense, but he made up the problem (and the fact that the Jewish problem was a made up issue was a faulty assumption that too many people accepted without critic).
I had to read a 10-page excerpt (printed in a textbook of excerpts) for a Western Civ community college course in high school. Part of it was very disturbing, but the whole piece was very disjointed; the organization of it led me to believe that it wasn’t just the translation at fault.
I’ve read it. And I encourage fellow Jews to read it. Just to make sure they’re aware that while the world is a good place usually there are some out there who hate us for no other reason than that we are Jews. It’s a lesson easy to forget in the United States. But it’s one that needs to be remembered.