Focusing on German society immediately following the First World War, this vivid historical narrative explains how fake news and political uproar influenced Hitler and put him on the path toward dictatorial power. How did an obscure agitator on the political fringes of early-20th-century Germany rise to become the supreme leader of the Third Reich? Unlike many other books that track Adolf Hitler's career after 1933, this book focuses on his formative period--immediately following World War I (1918-1924). The author, a veteran producer of historical documentaries, brings to life this era of political unrest and violent conflict, when forces on both the left and right were engaged in a desperate power struggle. Among the competing groups was a highly sophisticated network of ethnic chauvinists that discovered Hitler and groomed him into the leader he became. The book also underscores the importance of a post-war socialist revolution in Bavaria, led by earnest reformers, some of whom were Jewish. Right wing extremists skewed this brief experiment in democracy followed by Soviet-style communism as evidence of a Jewish-Bolshevik plot. Along with the pernicious stab-in-the-back myth, which misdirected blame for Germany's defeat onto civilian politicians, public opinion was primed for Hitler to use his political cunning and oratorical powers to effectively blame Jews and Communists for all of Germany's problems. Based on archival research in Germany, England, and the US, this striking narrative reveals how the manipulation of facts and the use of propaganda helped an obscure, embittered malcontent to gain political legitimacy, which led to dictatorial power over a nation.
About the Author: Cory Taylor is a primetime Emmy award-winning filmmaker with twenty-five years of experience in documentaries who began his career with National Geographic Television. His most recent film, JFK: A President Betrayed (2013), was narrated by Morgan Freeman and uncovered startling information about President Kennedy's back-channel efforts for peace. Praised for its "cinematic scholarship," the film was lauded for its accurate depiction of Kennedy's foreign policy. Taylor also wrote and directed the award-winning feature-length documentary, The Power of the Powerless (2009), which tells the story of the Velvet Revolution. Narrated by Jeremy Irons and featuring Vaclav Havel, Powerless details the dissident movement in Czechoslovakia that overturned the country's forty-year-old Communist regime in 1989. Powerless was distributed by human rights organizations to encourage dissidents seeking non-violent democratic change in numerous countries. His award-winning documentary, A Quiet Revolution, narrated by Meryl Streep, introduced viewers to Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and was aired in fifty countries. He is currently a partner and executive producer at Storylight Media and president of Agora Productions.