Timothy W. Ryback – författare

From the internationally acclaimed author of Hitler''s Private Library, a dramatic recounting of the six critical months before Adolf Hitler assumed power, when the Nazi leader teetered between triumph and ruin.In the summer of 1932, the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse. One in three Germans was unemployed. Violence was rampant. Hitler''s National Socialists surged at the polls. Paul von Hindenburg, an aging war hero and avowed monarchist, was a reluctant president bound by oath to uphold the constitution. The November elections offered Hitler the prospect of a Reichstag majority and a path to political power. But instead, the Nazis lost two million votes. As membership hemorrhaged and financial backers withdrew, the Nazi Party threatened to fracture. Hitler talked of suicide. The New York Times declared he was finished. Yet somehow, in a few brief weeks, he was chancellor of Germany.In fascinating detail and with previously un-accessed archival materials, Timothy W. Ryback tells the remarkable story of Hitler''s dismantling of democracy through the democratic process. He provides a fresh perspective and insights into Hitler''s personal and professional lives in these months, in all their complexity and uncertainty-backroom deals, unlikely alliances, stunning betrayals, an ill-timed tax audit, and a fateful weekend that changed our world forever. Above all, Ryback makes clear why a wearied Hindenburg, who disdained the "Bohemian corporal," ultimately decided to appoint Hitler chancellor in January 1933.Within weeks, Germany was no longer a democracy.

Biblioteca lui Hitler însuma circa 16 000 de volume care, în mare parte, au intrat în posesia trupelor americane la încheierea războiului. Reputatul cercetător american Timothy W. Ryback a descoperit şi cercetat în Biblioteca Congresului din Washington D.C. şi în alte centre de documentare din Statele Unite şi din Europa aproximativ 1200 de lucrări care au aparţinut dictatorului, multe dintre ele cu adnotările şi sublinierile lui atente.

De la lucrări clasice ale literaturii universale, cum sunt Don Quijote, Robinson Crusoe ori romanele de aventuri ale lui Karl May şi piesele lui Shakespeare, la scrieri antisemite, ca Evreul internaţional a lui Henry Ford, de la Nietzsche şi Schopenhauer la obscure tratate de ocultism, analiza făcută de autor acestor cărţi oferă o nouă perspectivă asupra transformării micului caporal în Führerul care a declarat război civilizaţiei.