Cover of The First Soldier

The First Soldier

Hitler as Military Leader

Sample
Season's Savings

0.99 €/mo for 3 months

Auto-renews at 5.99 €/month after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
More purchase options

The First Soldier

By: Stephen G. Fritz
Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
Get this deal

Auto-renews at 5.99 €/month after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 28 December, 2026.

Buy Now for €22.99

Buy Now for €22.99

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/month for 3 months

5.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.
Summary

A leading expert reexamines history to offer a stunningly original portrait of Hitler as a competent military commander and strategist.

After Germany's humiliating World War II defeat, numerous German generals published memoirs claiming that their country's brilliant military leadership had been undermined by the Führer's erratic decision making. The author of three highly acclaimed books on the era, Stephen Fritz upends this characterization of Hitler as an ill-informed fantasist and demonstrates the ways in which his strategy was coherent and even competent.

That Hitler saw World War II as the only way to retrieve Germany's fortunes and build an expansionist Thousand-Year Reich is uncontroversial. But while his generals did sometimes object to Hitler's tactics and operational direction, they often made the same errors in judgment and were in agreement regarding larger strategic and political goals. A necessary volume for understanding the influence of World War I on Hitler's thinking, this work is also an eye-opening reappraisal of major events like the invasion of Russia and the battle for Normandy.

©2018 Stephen G. Fritz (P)2018 Tantor
Europe Germany Military Military & War Politicians Politics & Activism World War II
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Reviews

"Perhaps the best account we have to date of Hitler's military leadership. It shows a scrupulous and imaginative historian at work and will cement Fritz's reputation as one of the leading historians of the military conflicts generated by Hitler's Germany." (Richard Overy, author of The Bombing War)

No reviews yet