Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock

From the Publisher

Alan Bullock's Hitler and Stalin is his crowning achievement, the magnum opus of one of today's most admired historians--the distinguished Oxford scholar and author of the now classic Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. This new work is a full-scale dual biography, remarkable for the richness and clarity of its narrative, for its historical astuteness, and above all for its freshly revealing perspective. Bullock examines his protagonists not in the traditional context of their conflicts with the Western Alliance but, for the first time, primarily against the more fruitful background of Berlin-Moscow relations; for he sees the cataclysmic history of Europe in the mid-twentieth century as an ongoing and accelerating clash between the aspirations of Germany and those of the Soviet Union. Until now the pendulum has swung between exaggeration and underestimation of the roles played by Hitler and Stalin. Bullock argues convincingly that, in order to show how two such outsiders came to power, it is necessary to take into account both the historical circumstances that gave them an opportunity and the highly individual traits and gifts each man used to exploit it. He goes on to explore the nature and scope of their power. His approach, developed with a remarkable command of historical and psychological detail and a sure grasp of historical currents--both the sweeping and the small--is to take the reader through one after another of the major crises: from Stalin's savage attack on the Russian peasantry and the Nazi takeover of Germany, to Stalin's destructive purges of the Communist Party and the Red Army, and Hitler's planned attempt to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe. Bullock finds in both Hitler and Stalin, despite the radical differences between them, the same unshaken belief in their historic missions, overriding any regard for law, limits, or humanity and armoring them against any feeling of compassion, remorse, or guilt. His book culminates in an account of wh

Publishers Weekly

The lives of, arguably, the 20th century's most evil dictators unfold in tandem in this continually absorbing masterpiece of historical exposition and the biographer's art, a History Book Club main selection in cloth. (Sept.)

Library Journal

This is a huge and masterful dual biography of two of the most monstrous personalities of this century. Bullock, whose Hitler: A Study in Tyranny ( LJ 2/15/64) truly deserves its designation as a classic, has produced a smoothly written study of how these two lives ran parallel and how they intertwined to affect the lives of millions in the first half of this century. One would expect Bullock to know Hitler, but his grasp of Stalin and his times is also impressive. In chapters alternately dealing with Hitler and then Stalin, Bullock analyzes how each man achieved and then used power for his own twisted goals. It is chilling to realize that both men rose within legitimate institutions, each ``playing the game'' by the established rules. Hitler's evil empire collapsed with his death, Stalin's would live on to haunt the Soviet Union for decades. Essential for anyone seeking to understand the history of the West in this century. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/91.-- Ed Goedeken, Purdue Univ. Libs., West Lafayette, Ind.

Kirkus Reviews

A masterpiece by Bullock (Ernest Bevin, 1984, etc.) that covers some of the most devastating events—as well as two of the most terrible personalities—of our century with breathtaking analytical power and narrative sweep. One of the most fruitful aspects of this dual biography is to reveal, for all the differences between Hitler and Stalin, how much they had in common. The differences were mainly in personality: Stalin the great calculator, Hitler the gambler; Stalin the master of bureaucracy, Hitler the artist-politician, hating routine; Stalin the sly, political Houdini, Hitler the charismatic leader. But their similarities were perhaps more significant. Both were guilty of crimes against humanity on a scale unprecedented in history: Like the Jews in Germany, peasant farmers in the Soviet Union were members of an outlawed class denied all human rights. The corruption in the heart of Nazism, according to Bullock, lay in its ends; in Communism, in its means. Neither Hitler nor Stalin, he believes, was mad. Both were entirely serious about their historic roles, the author says; skeptical about the motives of others, their cynicism stopped short of their own. But Hitler, at the end, was close to insanity; and Stalin had all the symptoms associated with paranoia—chronic suspicion, self-absorption, jealousy, hypersensitivity, and megalomania. Both men brought unprecedented suffering on their own people; the difference, Bullock notes, is that defeat exacted a terrible price from the German people, but at least spared them the continuation of Nazism, while victory cost the Russian people even more—but did not liberate them. A magnificent history, accessible andoften moving. Bullock's mastery of research sources, his judgment, and his analytic powers prove him one of the great historians of our time. (Seventy-one photographs and 18 maps—not seen.)

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Product Details

• ISBN: 0679729941
  
• ISBN-13: 9780679729945
• Format: Paperback, 1152pp
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Pub. Date: November 1993
• Edition Description: 1st Vintage Books ed
• Edition Number: 1
• Sales Rank: 125,501

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents