With extraordinary skill and vividness, drawing on a huge range of sources, Kershaw recreates the world which first thwarted and then nurtured Hitler in his youth, from early childhood to the first successes of the Nazi Party. As his seemingly pitiful fantasy of being Germany's saviour attracted more and more support, Kershaw brilliantly conveys why so many Germans adored Hitler, connived with him or felt powerless to resist him.

'Supersedes all previous accounts. It is the sort of masterly biography that only a first-rate historian can write.' David Cannadine, Observer Books of the Year

'The Hitler biography for the 21st century ... cool, judicious, factually reliable and intelligently argued'.' Richard Evans, Sunday Telegraph