VOLKER ULLRICH is a historian and journalist whose previous books in German include biographies of Bismarck and Napoleon, as well as a major study of Imperial Germany, Die nervoese Grossmacht 1871-1918 (The Nervous Empire). From 1990 to 2009, Ullrich was the editor of the political book review section of the influential weekly newspaper Die Zeit. He lives in Germany.
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 PLUTARCH AWARD A Time Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2020 An AirMail Best Book of 2020 The impulsiveness and grandiosity, the bullying and vulgarity, were obvious from the beginning; if anything, they accounted for Adolf Hitler's anti-establishment appeal.... Ullrich argues that the very qualities that accounted for the dictator's astonishing rise were also what brought about his ultimate ruin. -Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Ullrich's work is a remarkable treatise on the malevolence of power in modern times. Take care, lest we fall into the trap of autocracy. -Roger Abrams, New York Journal of Books Magisterial... lucidly formulated for a new generation of readers and scholars. -Library Journal An endlessly revealing look at the Nazi regime that touches on large issues and small details alike. -Kirkus, starred Meticulous... Smoothly written and splendidly translated, Ullrich's book gives us a Hitler we have not seen before, at once cold-blooded and narcissistic and cloyingly sentimental. And precisely because he seems so much like the rest of us, it is probably the most disturbing portrait of Hitler I have ever read. -Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times The reader who plunges in is rewarded with insight, understanding, fine judgements and read-me narrative drive... [This] biography of Hitler makes essential reading, especially one as deeply researched, beautifully written and finely judged as this one. -Tony Rennell, Daily Mail Ullrich's work is much more than just a biography. It is a work of synthesis, certainly, but a thorough and thoroughly readable one nonetheless, which stands muster alongside Hitler's most significant earlier biographers: Bullock, Toland, Fest and Kershaw. Elegantly written, engaging and insightful, it is a new standard work on its subject. -Roger Moorhouse, BBC History