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The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia by [Overy, Richard]

The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia Kindle Edition

by Richard Overy (Author)

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Half a century after their deaths, the dictatorships of Stalin and Hitler still cast a long and terrible shadow over the modern world. They were the most destructive and lethal regimes in history, murdering millions. They fought the largest and costliest war in all history. Yet millions of Germans and Russians enthusiastically supported them and the values they stood for. In this first major study of the two dictatorships side-by-side Richard Overy sets out to answer the question: How was dictatorship possible? How did they function? What was the bond that tied dictator and people so powerfully together? He paints a remarkable and vivid account of the different ways in which Stalin and Hitler rose to power, and abused and dominated their people. It is a chilling analysis of powerful ideals corrupted by the vanity of ambitious and unscrupulous men.

Length: 887 pages

Word Wise: Enabled

Language: English

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Review

The most comprehensive, up-to-date and cogently argued comparison yet published ... A richly insightful study. --The New York Times Book Review

A book of great importance ... it surpasses all others in breadth and depth. --Commentary

Book Description

Stalin and Hitler – a chilling analysis of powerful ideals corrupted by the vanity of unscrupulous men.

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Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 11651 KB
Print Length: 887 pages
Publisher: Penguin (28 April 2005)
Sold by: Penguin UK
Language: English
ASIN: B002RI997I
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Word Wise: Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Not Enabled

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Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #348,607 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #17 in Books > History > Military > World War II > The Blitz
- #38 in Books > History > Europe > Ukraine
- #70 in Books > History > Europe > Poland

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Amazon.com: 25 reviews

Koo Tat Kee

Tour de force

15 July 2018 - Published on Amazon.com

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This book is not meant to be a twin biography of Hitler and Stalin. According to Overy, ‘The Dictators has been written with two purposes in mind: first, to supply an empirical foundation on which to construct any discussion of what made the two systems either similar or different; second, to write a comparative ‘operational’ history of the two systems in order to answer the large question about how personal dictatorship actually worked.’ (P. xxxiv)

Moreover, to classify the two systems simply as totalitarian regimes may gloss over very real differences between them. The dictatorships have to be placed in context to understand the ideas, political behaviour and social ambitions that defined each. After all, ‘The dictatorships were the fruit of a unique historical conjuncture in which the pretensions of the two leaders matched, if imperfectly, the aspirations of those they sought to represent.’ (P.38)

Overy concluded, ‘What united the two systems was the unresolved and permanent gap between ideal and reality, and the common instruments exploited by each system to mask the distortions of the truth.’ (P.636)

All in all, the work was well-researched. Overy was able to put forward cogent arguments based on concrete historical evidence in a masterly way. It attained to the highest standard of scholarship.

Yoda

A Masterpiece

4 September 2007 - Published on Amazon.com

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This book does an extraordinary job at comparing the similarities in the means used by Nazi and Stalinist regimes. The use of mass media, the police (both secret and non-political), the use of prisons, cults of personality, etc. was remarkably similar between these two regimes. Dr. Overy documents their overlap in great detail and makes the case, at least from the perspective of means and tools, they were flip sides of the coin.

On the negative side the book is weak at the fundamental differences between the regimes in terms of ideology and the persons of Hitler and Stalin. The Nazi state was based on the importance and centrality of the ethnos while the Soviet was based, in an ill-defined way, on Marxist-Leninist ideology (whatever that may mean – even the Communist Party of the Soviet Union could not define this). In addition, the distinct personalities of Hitler and Stalin played a unique role in the Nazi and Stalinist regimes. With respect to Hitler, it seems doubtful if Nazism could have come into existence or continued without Hitler (or at least in the vicious form that it did). On the other hand, the Soviet Union’s Orwellian regime would probably have existed in more or less the same form whether or not Stalin had existed or not. The Communist Party’s leadership in the Soviet Union consisted primarily of individuals who had a mindset, particularly in terms of ideology, ruthlessness and worldview very similar to Stalin’s.

Despite these weaknesses this is still and extraordinary book in its comparison of the two regimes. Very highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful.

Eunice M.

The Dictators

4 December 2011 - Published on Amazon.com

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Richard Overy's book The Dictators sought to compare the ideological similarities and differences exemplified by Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. He examines many different factions of both regimes. He starts by looking at how these two dictatorships were able to come about and concludes that without the occurrence of World War I and a little bit of luck, these regimes could not have risen. Overy then goes on to look at the style in which these two dictators ruled. He explains that they claimed the democracy of the West divided the nation into a class system. They wanted true democracy that gives undisputed power to one political party to represent the country. Overy also suggests that Hitler and Stalin were not dictators just for the sense of power, but in order to reach their goal of a Utopia even though their ideas of Utopia differed. Hitler's utopia was a racially pure society, while Stalin's utopia was a classless society. Both of these rulers knew that they faced another inevitable war, and they both heavily involved themselves in the militaristic strategies of their countries. Overy states that WWII would become a total war because it would determine if the ideology of each system would survive. Lastly Overy focuses on the nationalism and racism in each dictatorship, which led to the mass extermination as well as deportation of people. He explains that due to the nationalism and anti-Semitism in both countries it was easy for people to look past the rumors of work and extermination camps.

This book in fairly in depth, and a slow read due to the immense amount of information Overy includes. At times Overy seems a little to eager to place Stalin and Hitler in the same category when comparing the two dictatorships, and you must take what Overy says with a grain of salt. He is however clearly very knowledgeable on what he is writing and is very in tune with the ideas he is trying to set across. Overy does not lack data or support throughout his book. If you are interested in how dictatorships come to be and how they are able to keep their power this is a great book for you to read. Some parts are a little harder to get through than others, but overall the topic is interesting and very well written.

5 people found this helpful.

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