Strongman By Kenneth C. Davis: An Analysis

Adolf Hitler was elected by the German masses and he became the most evil man in history with their full support. In order to determine why Hitler was able to gain so much support from the people it is important to look at his rise to power and the radicalization of German society. Author Kenneth C. Davis details the path that many dictators follow to consolidate power in his novel Strongman and this path applies perfectly to Adolf Hitler. Following the German loss in World War One, Germany was devastated and the Great Depression that soon followed caused detrimental harm to the fragile Weimar Republic. German citizens had no one to blame for their grievances until Hitler and his Nazi party used the German Jews as the scapegoat. Due to the

After the end of World War One, Germany was devastated and this devastation lead to the rise of more extreme ideologies such as communism and fascism (Davis 93). Hitler was one of these radical Germans and because of horrible socioeconomic conditions in the Weimar Republic, he gained popularity quickly. Over the following years, Hitler was able to radicalize more of the German populous until a majority of the people loved Hitler and supported him in becoming Germany’s dictator (Davis 95). Hitler was able to gain such massive popularity due to his extremity in a time of socioeconomic crisis and his ability to provide solutions to problems he amplified to the German public (Davis Excerpt). Overall, society should learn from the mistakes of the past and avoid normalizing extreme political ideologies in order to prevent another dictator like Adolf

Adolf Hitler was able to rise to political prominence in Germany becasue he was able to identify what he beleived to be the main reason for German failures (Davis Excerpt). Hitler consistently blaimed the German Jewish population for the loss of Wolrd War One and the economic devastation that followed, and this use of the Jewish scapegoat lead to him rising massively in popularity (Davis 95). During what became known as the Night of Broken Glass, many Jewish businesses were attacked and vandalised by the HItler’s Nazi party and this event further amplified Jewish hatred in Germany. Hitler’s hatred for the Jews and any other non-Aryans who he deemed to be unfit for his new society were swiftly moved to concentration camps once Hitler had consolidated total power in Germany. The conditions in concentration camps were horrible and eventually death camps formed where Hitler’s undesirables were sent to be exterminated by the masses The period of mass extermination in Germany and Eastern Europe became known as the Holocaust during which an estimated eleven-million people were killed. If Hitler’s irrational hatred towards the Jewish people was condemned and denounced by more of the German public he likely would never have gained the amount of influence and power he did. Overall, it is important to learn from the mistakes of German citizens of the early twentieth century