Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives | Alan Bullock

Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives | Alan Bullock | UNDERSTANDING HISTORY

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Hitler and Stalin:...

	Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives Alan Bullock Vintage Books, 1993 - 1152 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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.

Were they human beings?

This book has become a classic and justifiably so. It succeeds in drawing a chronological, sociological and psychological comparison between the two most inhuman dictators in recent history. Some pictures are as revealing as Bullock's brilliant text: the school class picture showing both Hitler and Stalin in the same defying position at the same age, some 10 years apart, is ominous and already frightening.
The comparison between the ultimate, sly and ruthless burocrat and the violent, seductive and emotional politician, both deceitful, both obsessed with power and both verging on insanity, ultimately leading the same deadly and disastrous policies, is a brilliant piece of narrative history.
This is definitely a reference book, a landmark.

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UNDERSTANDING HISTORY

THIS BOOK BY ALLAN BULLOCK IS AN AMAZINGLY HYPNOTIC WORK OF ART THAT DESCRIBES TWO OF THE 20TH CENTURY'S MOST INFAMOUS MONSTERS TO HAVE SURFACED UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. THESE INDIVIDUALS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE; INCLUDING FOREIGNERS AND FROM THE SAME RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES. UNDERSTANDING THESE EVENTS LEAD INDIVIDUALS TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE CAN BE MORE MASS ATROCITIES, MORE DEATH AND MUCH MORE SUFFERING LIKE PREVIOUS INSTANCES. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR SOCIETY TO UNITE IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE THAT THESE SCENARIOS DO NOT REOCCUR BECAUSE THE EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR DURING THESE TIMES WOULD INDEED, BE CATASTROPHIC.

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Excellent

This dual biography is excellent. Bullock is an excellent writer with an uncluttered style and the content of this book reflects Bullock's considered judgements based on a careful reading of a large volume of scholarship. The balance between the narratives of Hitler's and Stalin's lives, explanations of the relevant contemporary history, and efforts at psychological insight is excellent. While a very thick book, it is a gripping read.
Bullock shows very well the distinct courses of Hitler's and Stalin's lives, a function both of their very different circumstances and personalities. Hitler rose to power in a partially democratized society, his success based on charismatic leadership, demagogic mass politics, and shrewd exploitation of the political weaknesses of his opponents. Once in power, he delegated power to trusted subordinates and presided over an anarchic state composed of competing power centers jockeying for his approval. Stalin, on the other hand, was a consummate bureaucrat and backroom politician. A tireless worker and master political infighter, he largely constructed the state apparatus that was the instrument of his power. His serial purges had the effect of elimnating any potential rival seats of power.
The major question, of course, is why produce a combined biography instead of 2 separate books? It is true that Hitler's and Stalin's lives intersected in very important ways but these issues could easily have been handled in separate books. The advantage of Bullock's approach is that it demonstrates, both implicitly and explicitly, the convergence of the Nazi and Stalinist states. Both were based on personal rule, crude but powerful ideological constructs that held the loyalty of the leaders and numerous followers, ruthless repression, and both states produced results that garned significant popular support. Both were constructed by monsters with considerable insight into human nature but no real sympathy for their fellow men. Both leaders were incredible egoists. Bullock uses the term narcissism in its clinical sense to describe both Hitler and Stalin, who saw the states they led as extensions of themselves. Not surprisingly then, in the depth and organization of repression and many other features, the Nazi and Stalinist states had major similarities. These basic patterns can be seen in many tyrannical states throughout human history and are independent of ideology.

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Two of a kind

Bullock takes on the daunting task of writing a dual biography on the two most notorious men in the Twentieth Century. He is able to provide a well written in-depth look at both Hitler and Stalin while showing the numerous parallels in their lives. Drawing on several first hand accounts, Bullock shows how each rose to power and ultimate destruction. The author shows little bias towards or against his subjects which is difficult considering the disdain his subjects have garnered. Hitler and Stalin is a stand alone epic that educates and entertains. Well worth the 1100 plus pages.

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PARALLEL MONSTERS

This is an excellent read for anyone interested in the lives of these 20th Century Monsters. I was particularly keen on learning about their worldviews and how they were shaped by historic events. For the most part Bullock does an excellent job here, jumping back between the two evil minds as they manuevered through European politics. The possibility that the two could have brushed shoulders in Vienna in 1913 is especially chilling.

Sadly, though the book falls apart some during the crucial war years! Bullock abandons comparitive analyses here, and gives us a traditional WWII history, including little the history reader won't already know. He should have concentrated on the dictators themselves, and how they saw the conflict. Instead we get a textbook account of the European conflict. Still a fairly good job overall.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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