Hitler: A Biography
by Ian Kershaw
1,072 pages
W. W. Norton
Published: Nov 2008

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) is one of history’s most horrifying and unfathomable demons. Not surprisingly, there are a large number of excellent books focused on his life and legacy including well-known biographies by Alan Bullock, Joachim Fest, John Toland and Volker Ullrich, among others.

Readers seeking an uplifting and entertaining biography would do well to steer clear of Hitler, of course. But anyone willing to embrace a serious and somber subject will find Ian Kershaw’s abridgment of his two-volume series on Hitler extraordinarily thoughtful, methodical and penetrating…