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  • Published: 13 September 2012
  • ISBN: 9781448117291
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 496

The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler




A fascinating exploration of the character of Adolf Hitler - the most powerful and destructive man in history - by Sunday Times bestselling author Laurence Rees, part of a reissue series celebrating his work.

Fuelled by hate. Unable to form normal human relationships. Unwilling to debate political issues.

In many ways Adolf Hitler seemed an unlikely leader, yet he inspired millions, leading Germany into the cataclysmic events of the Second World War.

But how was Hitler able to exert such power over those around him?

Award-winning historian and documentary maker Laurence Rees draws on twenty years of research into the Third Reich, as well as contemporary accounts of people who knew Hitler, to examine the nature of Hitler's appeal and reveal the role his unique 'charisma' played in his success.

'Offering acerbic insight ... this arresting account asks and answers all the right questions'
Daily Telegraph

  • Published: 13 September 2012
  • ISBN: 9781448117291
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 496

About the author

Laurence Rees

Laurence Rees is the author of The Holocaust: A New History, a Sunday Times bestseller that was described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘the finest single volume on the Holocaust ever written’, by the Times as an ‘exemplary account of how the greatest crime in modern history came about’ and by the Mail on Sunday as ‘groundbreaking.’


A former Head of BBC TV History programmes, he has written nine books focusing on the Nazis and the Second World War. Many of them, including The Nazis: A Warning from History, Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution’, World War II: Behind Closed Doors and The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler, were also documentary TV series, which he wrote and produced.


Educated at Oxford University, for several years he was a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Sheffield and the Open University.


His many awards include a British Book award, a BAFTA, a George Foster Peabody award, a Broadcasting Press Guild award, a Grierson award, a Broadcast award, two International Documentary awards and two Emmys.

Also by Laurence Rees

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Praise for The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler

Offering acerbic insight ... this arresting account asks and answers all the right questions

Daily Telegraph

Laurence Rees asks, as always, the right questions, and provides excellent answers. Blending the oral testimony of contemporaries with documentary evidence, he offers sharp insight into the adulation of Hitler by millions of Germans that underpinned his 'charismatic rule'

Professor Sir Ian Kershaw

Laurence Rees has done more for good history on television in this country than anyone else. Over several series, he has examined the most terrible aspects of the Second World War with a passionate longing to understand, while rejecting facile moral judgment

Sir Antony Beevor

Laurence Rees is currently producing the best documentaries ever made about the Nazi era

Clive James

'Laurence Rees asks, as always, the right questions, and provides excellent answers. Blending the oral testimony of contemporaries with documentary evidence, he offers sharp insight into the adulation of Hitler by millions of Germans that underpinned his “charismatic rule”’

Professor Sir Ian Kershaw

Laurence Rees is currently producing the best documentaries ever made about the Nazi era

Clive James

Laurence Rees has done more for good history on television in this country than anyone else. Over several series, he has examined the most terrible aspects of the Second World War with a passionate longing to understand, while rejecting facile moral judgment

Antony Beevor