RON ROSENBAUM - Explaining Hitler. The Search For the Orgins of His Evil

London England, Macmillan, 1998. First Edition/First Print, Binding: Cloth, Fine/Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall 0333734572 Hardback Hitler did not escape the bunker in 1945, but, more than half a century after his death, he continues to escape explanation. To many of the most powerful minds of the century, the mind of Adolf Hitler remains a frustrating, disturbing, even frightening mystery. The author has spent nearly a decade investigating the attempts of historians, psychologists, philosophers, artist and theologians who have struggled to understand the man who stands at the dark heart of our century. In fascinating face-to-face encounters with brilliant and controversial explainers, he reveals the way that the meanings we project upon the enigma of Hitler reflect hidden, often unacknowledged, beliefs about human nature and about the nature of evil. Rosenbaum shows how attempts to explain Hitler run the danger of allowing Hitler to escape responsibility and demonstrates how some of Hitler's explainers still falls under the Hitler spell. In a unique work of literary journalism the author combines original reportage, intellectual history and impassioned argument to illuminate the surprising and revealing ways in which the quest to explain Hitler has become a quest to understand ourselves.