Goebbels

by Ralf Georg Reuth

Book Overview

Drawn on eyewitness accounts, letters and diaries, and archival material, this is the story of a complex man who was, of all the Nazis, the most zealous advocate of the extermination of the Jews. Index; photographs. Translated by Krishna Winston.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151360766
• ISBN13: 9780151360765
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 471 Pages
• Weight: 1.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Good translation

This book was originally written in German and I think the English version is a very good one. The book can be monotonous at times but, over all, it is vey instructive. The book filled some gaps I had on the "Nazi" saga after reading the biographies of Hitler, Himmler and, Goering. Goebbels was a very effective propagandist and a great orator. Hitler's aura and mystique was, to a certain extent, the result of Goebbels's propaganda efforts. Goebbels stood firm behind Hitler up to the bitter end. The story is compelling and the narrative is decent. You will not be disappointed with this biography.

hard cold look at propogandist

Settle in and concentrate on this slow hard look at Goebbels. If you are into detail on National Socialist interparty politics, this is the book. This guy was pure evil. He is the only figure surrounding Hitler that can actually eclipse the Fuhrer's ugliness.

Slow-going, packed with details

This is not a light and fluffy biography. Reuth has put an amazing amount of scholastic work into reconstructing the life of Goebbels. Be warned, however, that the book is slow-going, and often tedious.

A compelling, but arduous political biography

It is quite clear that the author has devoted years ofresearch to his subject, and that he has reconstructed the life ofthis enigmatic little man who churned the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany for nearly two decades largely through the examination of contemporary newspaper accounts. Mr. Reuth manages to convey to his reader the sense that Joseph Goebbels was a man driven to his demons by an unrelenting inferiority complex stemming from his physical ailments, his economic station in life, and his heartless rejection by classmates and childhood peers early in life. However, we do not hear much more about his family and youthful associates after the opening chapters. Goebbels private life (which is what the reader expects from a well-crafted biography) is subordinated by a minute by minute account of the rise and fall of National Socialism. Mr. Reuth's history of the Third Reich is interesting and highly readable, and he avoids the natural inclination to editorialize about his subject matter.

The definitive biography of Joseph Goebbels.

Reuth's "Goebbels" relies heavily upon the Nazi Germany Minister of Propaganda's own diaries, and in doing so provides a refreshing new look into the lives of one of the most powerful and influential Nazis. The book traces Goebbels from his birth in a small German town to his college years and on through his involvement in National Socialism and his supposed suicide because, in his own words, "a world without National Socialism is not worth living in."