Passing a bookshop recently I spotted A N Wilson's new short biography of Hitler in the window. I saw it again in our local library doing some photocopying for our Holiday Bible Club and decided to be the first to take it out. (I hadn't used my library card for 666 days the librarian told me so if we lose the library I'm one of the ones to blame).
Anyway, the book is an excellent little tome - brief, informative and not too opinionated. The final and twelfth chapter (181-190) is worth a read. (The very fact the Guardian reviewer didn't like it is a good sign). Wilson's thesis is that Hitler was both ordinary and extraordinary. I like his observations such as "Hitler believed in a crude Darwinism as do nearly all scientists today", the fact that this year's Olympics will be modelled on the Berlin 1936 games ("The Olympic torch was a Nazi invention) and the parallel between Hitler wanting every family to have a car and Tony Blair wanting every child to have a laptop. He says of Hitler "he believed himself to be enlightened and forward-looking, non-smoking, vegetarian, opposed to hunting, in favour of abortion and euthanasia."
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