{"product_id":"9781782745044","title":"Hitler: The Man and the Monster","description":"\u003ci\u003eHitler \u003c\/i\u003efollows Adolf Hitler from his itinerant childhood in Austria to his eventual position as the Führer and dictator of Nazi Germany. The young Hitler aspired to be an artist, but was rejected by art school. The death of his mother meant that he resorted to sleeping in homeless shelters. It was during this time that he became exposed to local newspapers that fanned his anti-Semitism and religious prejudices. At the beginning of World War I he joined the Bavarian Army and fought as a common soldier, developing as a consequence a deepseated contempt for the German officer class who directed the slaughter. In 1919 he met Anton Drexler, who invited him to join the DAP, which later became the \u003ci\u003eNationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei\u003c\/i\u003e—the NSDAP, or Nazi Party. By 1921 he had ousted Brexler, taking his place as party chairman. In 1923 he was arrested for treason after the NSDAP’s failed coup in Munich and spent nine months in prison, where he dictated the first volume of Mein Kampf to his deputy, Rudolf Hess. It was published in 1926 and brought him financial security during his bids for national leadership. After successful elections in 1932, he was made chancellor of Germany in 1933 and president in 1934. Hitler pursued his plans for a new German society based on racial purity, annexed his home country of Austria, and invaded neighboring Poland in 1939. In 1941, Hitler’s armies attacked the Soviet Union, precipitating four years of bloody slaughter on the Eastern Front. As Hitler’s health deteriorated, so did his grip on power, as Germany’s military and economic position began to collapse. His paranoia and misplaced belief in his own military expertise led him to interfere in military and tactical planning, and his refusal to let German forces retreat led to the surrender of hundreds of thousands of men at the battle of Stalingrad. In 1945, with Soviet forces pushing into the outskirts of Berlin, his reputation in tatters, and Germany’s defeat imminent, Hitler married his secret lover Eva Braun. Less than 40 hours later, the pair had committed suicide. Illustrated with 180 photographs, paintings, and artworks, \u003ci\u003eHitler \u003c\/i\u003ereveals the story of a man whose actions continue to both appall and fascinate the modern reader, more than seventy years after his death.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Amber Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47038921048304,"sku":"9781782745044","price":12.98,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781782745044_p0.jpg?v=1763721063","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781782745044","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}