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Hitler is a combined, abridged version of a two-volume biography on one of history’s most extraordinary leaders. Summary Of The Book As biographies go, Ian Kershaw’s is regarded, worldwide and indisputably, as the standard work on the Nazi leader Hitler. Initially released as a two-volume series, Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler: 1936-1945: Nemesis, Ian Kershaw’s biography on Hitler opened for the world the heart of the fuehrer. Hitler was a man of no apparent talents, a rejected artist, a nobody, and yet what he seemed to have enjoyed, and what has been made apparent by Kershaw’s in-depth research, was the immense number of opportune circumstances revolving around his life and Germany that enabled him an unopposed dictatorship. Hitler derived his force from his experiences in Vienna, his time in prison and war, and his initial successes against smaller Western forces. Kershaw doesn’t color Hitler as a tyrant, nor does he give him too much credit. Hitler was intelligent enough to take advantage of the favorable circumstances surrounding his leadership and irrational enough to let his delusions of grandeur become his undoing. More than the man himself, Hitler revolves around the structural forces in the then-Germany that led to the prolonged Nazi rule. Kershaw’s approach is not just to uncover the man himself, but the socio-political structures of Germany as well. The book draws on previously untapped sources such as Goebbels’s diaries to uncover the story of Hitler, the Holocaust, his followers and his sufferers. About Ian Kershaw Formerly a professor at the University of Sheffield, Sir Ian Kershaw, born April 29, 1943, is a British historian who is regarded as the world’s leading expert on Hitler, the Third Reich and Nazi Germany. His published works include Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison, Hitler: A Profile in Power, Bolton Priory: The Economy of a Northern Monastery, and Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World. Kershaw was born in Oldham and studied at Merton College and the University of Liverpool. Kershaw follows a methodological and structuralist regime that downplays the role of Adolf Hitler’s intellect in his rise to power. Kershaw was mentored by the late West German historian Martin Broszat, who shaped his understanding of Germany. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield. Kershaw was knighted in 2002 for his services to history. He is married to Dame Betty Kershaw, a former professor of Nursery and the Dean of the School of Nursing Studies at the University of Sheffield. Kershaw has served as a historical advisor on many BBC documentaries, notably The Nazis: A Warning from History and War of the Century.