The Unfathomable Ascent: How Hitler Came to Power

Journalist Range (1924) recounts Adolf Hitler’s rise to power from 1925 to 1933 in this rigorously detailed and dramatic account. After his imprisonment following the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler reentered the unstable political arena of Weimar Germany and enlisted a cadre of dedicated loyalists to reestablish authority over the Nazi Party. He traveled tirelessly across the country, delivering his nationalistic, anti-Semitic message to growing audiences in carefully staged events, and charmed wealthy benefactors, while remaining careful not to overplay his hand, as he’d done in 1923. When the Nazis won a plurality of the vote in a series of 1932 elections, establishment conservatives seeking to form a coalition government pressured president Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor of Germany, a move they thought would tame his political ambitions with “governing responsibilities.” But Hitler, with the help of Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, and others, exploited the 1933 Reichstag fire to suspend civil liberties and assert total control of the government. Range’s lengthy and fine-grained descriptions of the clandestine meetings and palace intrigues during late 1932 and early 1933 may be daunting for general readers, but he writes with verve and expertly mines German sources for telling details about the major players involved. This exhaustive account will enlighten even dedicated readers of WWII history. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency. (May)