Hitler & America / Klaus P. Fischer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fischer, Klaus P., 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945--Political and social views.

Hitler, Adolf.

Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945--Psychology.

World War, 1939-1945.

Germany--Foreign relations--1933-1945.

Germany.

Germany--Foreign relations--United States.

United States--Foreign relations--Germany.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vi, 356 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Hitler and America

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In February 1942, barely two months after he had declared war on the United States, Adolf Hitler praised America's great industrial achievements and admitted that Germany would need some time to catch up. The Americans, he said, had shown the way in developing the most efficient methods of production-especially in iron and coal, which formed the basis of modern industrial civilization. He also touted America's superiority in the field of transportation, particularly the automobile. He loved automobiles and saw in Henry Ford a great hero of the industrial age. Hitler's personal train was even code-named "Amerika."In Hitler and America, historian Klaus P. Fischer seeks to understand more deeply how Hitler viewed America, the nation that was central to Germany's defeat. He reveals Hitler's split-minded image of America: America and Amerika. Hitler would loudly call the United States a feeble country while at the same time referring to it as an industrial colossus worthy of imitation. Or he would belittle America in the vilest terms while at the same time looking at the latest photos from the United States, watching American films, and amusing himself with Mickey Mouse cartoons. America was a place that Hitler admired-for the can-do spirit of the American people, which he attributed to their Nordic blood-and envied-for its enormous territorial size, abundant resources, and political power. Amerika, however, was to Hitler a mongrel nation, grown too rich too soon and governed by a capitalist elite with strong ties to the Jews.Across the Atlantic, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had his own, far more realistically grounded views of Hitler. Fischer contrasts these with the misconceptions and misunderstandings that caused Hitler, in the end, to see only Amerika, not America, and led to his defeat.

Contents:

Hitler's Split Image of America

Hitler Takes Risks and America Legislates Itself into Neutrality: 1933-1937

Hitler's Year: 1938

Hitler's War against the West: 1939-1941

The World Will Hold Its Breath: 1941

The Tide of War Shifts in Favor of Hitler's Opponents

Prospects for a Separate Peace in 1943

Hitler and the "Unnatural Alliance": 1944-1945

"This War against America Is a Tragedy"

Hitler and the End of a Greater Reich.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781283896986

1283896982

9780812204414

0812204417

OCLC:

794700598