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Hitchcock Blonde: A Cinematic Memoir
by Sharon DolinA heady cocktail of sex and trauma, refracted through the lens of ten of Alfred Hitchcock's iconic movies.Imagine an episodic memoir that braids together insights about Alfred Hitchcock's movies with the narrative of a woman's life: scenes of growing up in Brooklyn in the sixties and seventies as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and a traveling salesman father, adolescent sexual traumas, and adult botched marriages and relationships— all refracted through the lens of ten of Alfred Hitchcock's iconic movies.In each chapter, the narrator—an award-winning poet—trains her idiosyncratic lens on a different film and then onto the uncanny connections they conjure up from her own life. A singular cliffhanging tale, reminiscent in style of Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran and Helen Macdonald's H Is for Hawk.
Hitchcock Lost & Found: The Forgotten Films (Screen Classics)
by Charles Barr Alain Kerzoncuf&“It seems there is still plenty to discover and to say about Alfred Hitchcock . . . a host of impressive new research.&” —Journal of Film Preservation Audiences worldwide know him for Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo, and other classics—but in Hitchcock Lost and Found, fans and film students alike can explore forgotten, incomplete, lost, and recovered productions from all stages of Alfred Hitchcock&’s career, including his early years in Britain. Alain Kerzoncuf and Charles Barr highlight Hitchcock&’s neglected works, including various films and television productions that supplement the critical attention already conferred on his feature films. They also explore the director&’s career during World War II, when he continued making high-profile features while also committing himself to a number of short war-effort projects on both sides of the Atlantic. Focusing on a range of forgotten but fascinating projects spanning five decades, Hitchcock Lost and Found offers a new, fuller perspective on the incomparable filmmaker&’s career and achievements. &“For the Hitchcock completist, Hitchcock Lost and Found is an essential resource.&” —Philadelphia Inquirer Includes photos and illustrations
Hitchcock and Philosophy: Dial M for Metaphysics
by David Baggett William A. DruminThe gushing shower in the Bates motel suddenly becomes a shower of blood -- The birds line up on the fence, watching and waiting -- An airplane chases Cary Grant through a cornfield -- James Stewart experiences vertigo in the church tower in San Juan Bautista. Philosophy explained through the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
Hitchcock and the Censors (Screen Classics)
by John BillheimerEdgar Award Winner: This lively account of the director&’s battles with the Code Office is &“an essential addition to any Hitchcock shelf&” (Mystery Scene Magazine). From 1934 to 1968, the Motion Picture Production Code Office controlled the content and final cut on all films made and distributed in the United States. Code officials protected sensitive ears from standard four-letter words, as well as a few five-letter words like tramp and six-letter words like cripes. They also scrubbed &“excessively lustful&” kissing from the screen and ensured that no criminal went unpunished. Thus, throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock had to deal with a wide variety of censors attuned to the slightest suggestion of sexual innuendo, undue violence, toilet humor, religious disrespect, and all forms of indecency, real or imagined. During their review of Hitchcock&’s films, the censors demanded an average of 22.5 changes, ranging from the mundane to the mind-boggling, on each of his American films. Code reviewers dictated the ending of Rebecca, absolved Cary Grant of guilt in Suspicion, edited Cole Porter&’s lyrics in Stage Fright, decided which shades should be drawn in Rear Window, and shortened the shower scene in Psycho. In Hitchcock and the Censors, John Billheimer traces the forces that led to the Production Code and describes Hitchcock&’s interactions with code officials on a film-by-film basis as he fought to protect his creations, bargaining with code reviewers and sidestepping censorship to produce a lifetime of memorable films. Despite the often-arbitrary decisions of the code board, Hitchcock still managed to push the boundaries of sex and violence permitted in films by charming—and occasionally tricking—the censors and by swapping off bits of dialogue, plot points, and individual shots (some of which had been deliberately inserted as trading chips) to protect cherished scenes and images. By examining Hitchcock&’s priorities in dealing with the censors, this work highlights the director&’s theories of suspense as well as his magician-like touch when negotiating with code officials.
Hitchcock at the Source: The Auteur as Adapter (SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema)
by R. Barton Palmer David BoydThe adaptation of literary works to the screen has been the subject of increasing, and increasingly sophisticated, critical and scholarly attention in recent years, but most studies of the subject have continued to privilege literature over film by taking the literary sources as their starting point. Rather than examining the processes by which a particular author has been adapted into a diversity of films by different filmmakers, the contributors in Hitchcock at the Source consider the processes by which a varied range of literary sources have been transformed by one filmmaker into an impressive body of work.Throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock transformed a variety of literary sources—novels, plays, short stories—into what is arguably the most coherent and distinctive (narratively, stylistically, and thematically) of all directorial oeuvres. After an introduction surveying the nature and diversity of Hitchcock's sources and locating the current volume in the context of theoretical work on adaptation, nineteen original essays range across the entirety of Hitchcock's career, from the silent period through to the 1970s. In addition to addressing the process of adaptation in particular films in terms of plot and character, the contributors also consider less obvious matters of tone, technique, and ideology; Hitchcock's manipulation of the conventions of literary and dramatic genres such as spy fiction and romantic comedy; and more general problems, such as Hitchcock's shift from plays to novels as his major sources in the course of the 1930s.
Hitchcock on Hitchcock, Volume 2
by Alfred Hitchcock Sidney GottliebThis second volume of Alfred Hitchcock's reflections on his life and work and the art of cinema contains material long out of print, not easily accessible, and in some cases forgotten or unknown. Edited by Sidney Gottlieb, this new collection of interviews, articles with the great director's byline, and "as-told-to" pieces provides an enlivening perspective on a career that spanned seven decades and transformed the history of cinema. In writings and interviews imbued with the same exuberance and originality that he brought to his films, Hitchcock ranges from accounts of his own life and experiences to provocative comments on filmmaking techniques and cinema in general. Wry, thoughtful, witty, and humorous--as well as brilliantly informative and insightful--this volume contains much valuable material that adds to our understanding and appreciation of a titan who decades after his death remains one of the most renowned and influential of all filmmakers. François Truffaut once said that Hitchcock "had given more thought to the potential of his art than any of his colleagues." This profound contemplation of his art is superbly captured in the pieces from all periods of Hitchcock's career gathered in this volume, which reveal fascinating details about how he envisioned and attempted to create a "pure cinema" that was entertaining, commercially successful, and artistically ambitious and innovative in an environment that did not always support this lofty goal.
Hitchcock on Hitchcock, Volume 2: Selected Writings and Interviews
by Alfred Hitchcock Sidney GottliebThis second volume of Alfred Hitchcock’s reflections on his life and work and the art of cinema contains material long out of print, not easily accessible, and in some cases forgotten or unknown. Edited by Sidney Gottlieb, this new collection of interviews, articles with the great director's byline, and "as-told-to" pieces provides an enlivening perspective on a career that spanned seven decades and transformed the history of cinema. In writings and interviews imbued with the same exuberance and originality that he brought to his films, Hitchcock ranges from accounts of his own life and experiences to provocative comments on filmmaking techniques and cinema in general. Wry, thoughtful, witty, and humorous—as well as brilliantly informative and insightful—this volume contains much valuable material that adds to our understanding and appreciation of a titan who decades after his death remains one of the most renowned and influential of all filmmakers. François Truffaut once said that Hitchcock "had given more thought to the potential of his art than any of his colleagues." This profound contemplation of his art is superbly captured in the pieces from all periods of Hitchcock’s career gathered in this volume, which reveal fascinating details about how he envisioned and attempted to create a "pure cinema" that was entertaining, commercially successful, and artistically ambitious and innovative in an environment that did not always support this lofty goal.
Hitchcock à la Carte
by Jan OlssonAlfred Hitchcock: cultural icon, master film director, storyteller, television host, foodie. And as Jan Olsson argues in Hitchcock à la Carte, he was also an expert marketer who built his personal brand around his rotund figure and well-documented table indulgencies. Focusing on Hitchcock's television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) and the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-1965), Olsson asserts that the success of Hitchcock's media empire depended on his deft manipulation of bodies and the food that sustained them. Hitchcock's strategies included frequently playing up his own girth, hiring body doubles, making numerous cameos, and using food--such as a frozen leg of lamb--to deliver scores of characters to their deaths. Constructing his brand enabled Hitchcock to maintain creative control, blend himself with his genre, and make himself the multi-million-dollar franchise's principal star. Olsson shows how Hitchcock's media brand management was a unique performance model that he used to mark his creative oeuvre as strictly his own.
Hitchcock's Blondes: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director's Dark Obsession
by Laurence LeamerBestselling author of Capote&’s Women Laurence Leamer shares an engrossing account of the enigmatic director Alfred Hitchcock that finally puts the dazzling actresses he cast in his legendary movies at the center of the story.Alfred Hitchcock was fixated—not just on the dark, twisty stories that became his hallmark, but also by the blond actresses who starred in many of his iconic movies. The director of North by Northwest, Rear Window, and other classic films didn&’t much care if they wore wigs, got their hair coloring out of a bottle, or were the rarest human specimen—a natural blonde—as long as they shone with a golden veneer on camera. The lengths he went to in order to showcase (and often manipulate) these women would become the stuff of movie legend. But the women themselves have rarely been at the center of the story, until now.In Hitchcock&’s Blondes, bestselling biographer Laurence Leamer offers an intimate journey into the lives of eight legendary actresses whose stories helped chart the course of the troubled, talented director&’s career—from his early days in the British film industry, to his triumphant American debut, to his Hollywood heyday and beyond. Through the stories of June Howard-Tripp, Madeleine Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and Tippi Hedren—who starred in fourteen of Hitchcock&’s most notable films and who bore the brunt of his fondness and sometimes fixation—we can finally start to see the enigmatic man himself. After all, &“his&” blondes (as he thought of them) knew the truths of his art, his obsessions and desires, as well as anyone.From the acclaimed author of Capote&’s Women comes an intimate, revealing, and thoroughly modern look at both the enduring art created by a man obsessed…and the private toll that fixation took on the women in his orbit.
Hitchcock's Moral Gaze: Hitchcock's Moral Gaze P (SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema)
by R. Barton Palmer; Homer B. Pettey; Steven M. SandersIn his essays and interviews, Alfred Hitchcock was guarded about substantive matters of morality, preferring instead to focus on discussions of technique. That has not, however, discouraged scholars and critics from trying to work out what his films imply about such moral matters as honesty, fidelity, jealousy, courage, love, and loyalty. Through discussions and analyses of such films as Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Frenzy, the contributors to this book strive to throw light on the way Hitchcock depicts a moral—if not amoral or immoral—world. Drawing on perspectives from film studies, philosophy, literature, and other disciplines, they offer new and compelling interpretations of the filmmaker's moral gaze and the inflection point it provides for modern cinema.
Hitchcock's Music
by Jack Sullivan"A wonderfully coherent, comprehensive, groundbreaking, and thoroughly engaging study&” of how the director of Psycho and The Birds used music in his films (Sidney Gottlieb, editor of Hitchcock on Hitchcock). Alfred Hitchcock employed more musical styles and techniques than any film director in history, from Marlene Dietrich singing Cole Porter in Stage Fright to the revolutionary electronic soundtrack of The Birds. Many of his films—including Notorious, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho—are landmarks in the history of film music. Now author and musicologist Jack Sullivan presents the first in-depth study of the role music plays in Hitchcock&’s films. Based on extensive interviews with composers, writers, and actors, as well as archival research, Sullivan discusses how Hitchcock used music to influence his cinematic atmospheres, characterizations, and even storylines. Sullivan examines the director&’s relationships with various composers, especially Bernard Herrmann, and tells the stories behind some of their now-iconic musical choices. Covering the entire director&’s career, from the early British works up to Family Plot, this engaging work will change the way we watch—and listen—to Hitchcock&’s movies.
Hitchcock's Partner in Suspense: The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett (Screen Classics)
by Charles BennettThe colorful life and creative career of the writer behind six of Hitchcock&’s thrillers: &“An intriguing and revealing story.&” —Times Literary Supplement With a career that spanned from the silent era to the 1990s, British screenwriter Charles Bennett lived an extraordinary life. His experiences as an actor, director, playwright, film and television writer, and novelist in both England and Hollywood left him with many amusing anecdotes, opinions about his craft, and impressions of the many famous people he knew. Among other things, Bennett was a decorated WWI hero, an eminent Shakespearean actor, and an Allied spy and propagandist during WWII, but he is best remembered for his commercially and critically acclaimed collaborations with directors Sir Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille. The fruitful partnership with Hitchcock began after the director adapted Bennett&’s 1929 play Blackmail as the first British sound film. Their partnership produced six thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, Sabotage, Secret Agent, Young and Innocent, and Foreign Correspondent. In this witty and intriguing book, Bennett discusses how their collaboration created such famous motifs as the &“wrong man accused&” device and the MacGuffin. He also takes readers behind the scenes with the Master of Suspense, offering his thoughts on the director&’s work, sense of humor, and personal life. Featuring an introduction and additional biographical material from Bennett&’s son, editor John Charles Bennett, Hitchcock&’s Partner in Suspense is a richly detailed narrative of a remarkable yet often-overlooked figure in film history.
Hitchcock's Romantic Irony
by Richard AllenIn a new interpretation of the director's work, Richard Allen argues that Hitchcock orchestrates the narrative and stylistic idioms of popular cinema to at once celebrate and subvert the ideal of romance and to forge a distinctive worldview-the amoral outlook of the romantic ironist or aesthete.
Hitchcock's Romantic Irony (Film and Culture Series)
by Richard AllenIs Hitchcock a superficial, though brilliant, entertainer or a moralist? Do his films celebrate the ideal of romantic love or subvert it? In a new interpretation of the director's work, Richard Allen argues that Hitchcock orchestrates the narrative and stylistic idioms of popular cinema to at once celebrate and subvert the ideal of romance and to forge a distinctive worldview-the amoral outlook of the romantic ironist or aesthete. He describes in detail how Hitchcock's characteristic tone is achieved through a titillating combination of suspense and black humor that subverts the moral framework of the romantic thriller, and a meticulous approach to visual style that articulates the lure of human perversity even as the ideal of romance is being deliriously affirmed. Discussing more than thirty films from the director's English and American periods, Allen explores the filmmaker's adoption of the idioms of late romanticism, his orchestration of narrative point of view and suspense, and his distinctive visual strategies of aestheticism and expressionism and surrealism.
Hitchcock's Stars: Alfred Hitchcock and the Hollywood Studio System
by Lesley L CoffinAlthough he was a visual stylist who once referred to actors as cattle, Alfred Hitchcock also had a remarkable talent for innovative and creative casting choices. The director launched the careers of several actors and completely changed the trajectory of others, many of whom created some of the most iconic screen performances in history. However, Hitchcock’s ability to fit his leading men and women into just the right parts has been a largely overlooked aspect of his filmmaking skills. In Hitchcock’s Stars: Alfred Hitchcock and the Hollywood Studio System, Lesley L. Coffin looks at how the director made the most of the actors who were at his disposal for several decades. From his first American production in 1940 to his final feature in 1976, Hitchcock’s films were examples of creative casting that strayed far from the norm during the structured Hollywood star system. Rather than examining the cinematic aspects of his work, this book explores the collaboration the director engaged in with some of the most
Hitchcock, Second Edition: The Murderous Gaze (SUNY series, Horizons of Cinema)
by William RothmanFirst published in 1982, William Rothman's Hitchcock is a classic work of film criticism. Written in an engaging style that is philosophically sophisticated yet free of jargon, and using over nine hundred images from the films to illustrate and back up its critical claims, the book follows six different Hitchcock films as they unfold, moment by moment, from first shot to last.In addition to a thoughtful new preface and the original readings of The Lodger (1927), Murder! (1930), The 39 Steps (1935), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and Psycho (1960), this expanded edition includes a groundbreaking new chapter—now the book's longest—on Marnie (1964), Hitchcock's most heartfelt yet most controversial film. Hitchcock never tired of quoting Oscar Wilde's line, "And all men kill the thing they love." Dark moods therefore prevail in the five original chapters, culminating in the reading of Psycho, but in demonstrating how Marnie overcomes, or transcends, the murderous aspect of Hitchcock's art, this new chapter balances the scales and gives an important new dimension to the book.With exemplary precision, Hitchcock, Second Edition shows how Hitchcock films express, cinematically, serious thoughts about such matters as the nature and relationships of love, murder, sexuality, marriage, and theater—and about their own medium. In so doing, it keeps faith with the idea that Hitchcock was a master, perhaps the master, of what he called the "art of pure cinema." However, insofar as it investigates philosophically the conditions of authorship in the medium of film, it is an auteurist study unlike any other. By attending to the films themselves and to the ways we experience them, rather than allowing some theory to dictate what to say about them, the book proves the fruitfulness of an approach that is open and responsive to the ways serious films are capable of teaching us how to think seriously about them.
Hitchcock: Past and Future
by Richard Allen Sam Ishii-GonzálesThis new collection of writings on Alfred Hitchcock considers Hitchcock both in his time and as a continuing influence on filmmakers, films and film theory. The contributions, who include leading scholars such as Slavoj Zizek, Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen, and James Naremore, discuss canonical films such as Notorious and The Birds alongside lesser-known works including Juno and the Paycock and Frenzy. Articles are grouped into four thematic sections: 'Authorship and Aesthetics' examines Hitchcock as auteur and investigates central topics in Hitchcockian aesthetics. 'French Hitchcock' looks at Hitchcock's influence on filmmakers such as Chabrol, Truffaut and Rohmer, and how film critics such as Bazin and Deleuze have engaged with Hitchcock's work. 'Poetics and Politics of Identity' explores the representation of personal and political in Hitchcock's work. The final section, 'Death and Transfiguration' addresses the manner in which the spectacle and figuration of death haunts the narrative universe of Hitchcock's films, in particular his subversive masterpiece Psycho.
Hitchcocktails: Lethal Libations Inspired by the Master of Suspense
by Laurence MaslonNow, for the first time, enthusiasts of cocktails and Hitchcock can raise a glass and toast each of the legendry director&’s most iconic films, with more than two dozen original recipes for delicious, handcrafted cocktails. inspired by Hitch&’s most infamous scenes, settings, and characters.Murder and manners make for the ultimate mixture in the movies of director Alfred Hitchcock. In every one of his major pictures, characters down an alcoholic beverage or two—even in a film set on a lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Hitchcocktails: Lethal Libations Inspired by the Master of Suspense features more than two dozen artisanal cocktail recipes inspired by such characters such as Norman Bates, Mrs. Danvers, Uncle Charlie, Marnie, and the ultimate stranger on a train, Bruno Antony. Cary Grant&’s elegant way around a cocktail shaker is traced from his would-be poisoner in Suspicion to his government agent with an intimate knowledge of hangover remedies in Notorious to his bourbon-addled ad man-on-the-run in North by Northwest. Author Laurence Maslon (who combined his passion for Broadway and cocktails in I&’ll Drink to That!, an award-winning Weldon Owen book from 2023) reveals the relationship between drinking and drama with anecdotes and fun facts, ranging from early Hitchcock espionage thrillers such as Secret Agent and The Lady Vanishes through his final films such as Frenzy and Family Plot. Chapters such as &“Wrong Place, Wrong Time;&” &“Foreign Climes;&” and &“Ice Maidens&” organize the drinks around famous motifs such as Hitchcock's iconic blondes and other unforgettable female characters. With easy-to-follow instructions, beautiful full-color photography of the cocktails by legendary photographer Joan Marcus, and rare film stills and posters from the movies themselves, Hitchcocktails: Lethal Libations Inspired by the Master of Suspense is the kind of perfect addition to a bar shelf or a bookshelf that any cinema fan would kill for.
Hitchcock’s British Films: Second Edition (Contemporary Approaches To Film And Media Ser.)
by Maurice YacowarA reissued classic that examines the structure and themes of each of Hitchcock's British feature films.
Hitler Saved My Life: WARNING—This book makes jokes about the Third Reich, the Reign of Terror, World War I, cancer, Millard Fillmore, Chernobyl, and features a full-frontal nude photograph of an unattractive man.
by Jim RiswoldWhen advertising legend Jim Riswold is stricken with leukemia and prostate cancer, he quits the business that made him famous to become a “fake artist,” creating a controversial body of work with a controversial cast of characters, from Hitler to Mao to Kim Jong-Il. It was a decision that would save his life.Advertising legend Jim Riswold is a Big F****** Deal. Ask him, he’ll tell you. But when Riswold is stricken with leukemia and prostate cancer (a two-fer!), the freewheeling adman quits making commercials, and starts making art. But not just any art—Hitler art. Mussolini art. Stalin-in-a-bathtub art. This is not a sad cancer story. This is a molotov cocktail of raunch and heart and 18-gauge biopsy guns. This is a taboo-busting laugh riot, a raspberry blown straight at dying-guy preciousness and monsters of all kinds—cancer and world-historical bad guys included. Be warned—contents of this book include: One profanity-spiked TEDx talk. Several very public, full-frontal dick picks. Two adorable children. Something called “Interferon Family Fun Night.” Jim Riswold leading a crowd of people in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday” to his oncologist. Relentlessly funny, and scorchingly subversive, this is a bruised and bruising memoir—it is also tubed, scarred, stapled, and irradiated. But here’s the secret: Jim Riswold, enfant terrible, the man Charles Barkley once called “a role model for morons,” is kind of a sweetheart. The wise-guy posturing is just a cover for his pulpy heart. Another secret: This book isn’t about Hitler. It’s about the beautiful, stupid, gross, foolish, and fantastic things we’re willing to do for love and family and not-dying. It’s about a guy who, with due respect to Lou Gehrig, considers himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Really, Jim Riswold owes cancer a thank-you. Thanks to cancer, his tombstone will no longer read: Here Lies That Guy Who Did That “Bo Knows” Commercial. Now, it will say Here Lies the Guy Who Put Cancer in Its Place—and Mussolini on a Tricycle.
Hitler and Film: The Führer's Hidden Passion
by Bill NivenAn exposé of Hitler’s relationship with film and his influence on the film industry A presence in Third Reich cinema, Adolf Hitler also personally financed, ordered, and censored films and newsreels and engaged in complex relationships with their stars and directors. Here, Bill Niven offers a powerful argument for reconsidering Hitler’s fascination with film as a means to further the Nazi agenda. In this first English-language work to fully explore Hitler’s influence on and relationship with film in Nazi Germany, the author calls on a broad array of archival sources. Arguing that Hitler was as central to the Nazi film industry as Goebbels, Niven also explores Hitler’s representation in Third Reich cinema, personally and through films focusing on historical figures with whom he was associated, and how Hitler’s vision for the medium went far beyond “straight propaganda.” He aimed to raise documentary film to a powerful art form rivaling architecture in its ability to reach the masses.
Hitler at Home
by Despina StratigakosA look at Adolf Hitler&’s residences and their role in constructing and promoting the dictator&’s private persona both within Germany and abroad. Adolf Hitler&’s makeover from rabble-rouser to statesman coincided with a series of dramatic home renovations he undertook during the mid-1930s. This provocative book exposes the dictator&’s preoccupation with his private persona, which was shaped by the aesthetic and ideological management of his domestic architecture. Hitler&’s bachelor life stirred rumors, and the Nazi regime relied on the dictator&’s three dwellings—the Old Chancellery in Berlin, his apartment in Munich, and the Berghof, his mountain home on the Obersalzberg—to foster the myth of the Führer as a morally upstanding and refined man. Author Despina Stratigakos also reveals the previously untold story of Hitler&’s interior designer, Gerdy Troost, through newly discovered archival sources. At the height of the Third Reich, media outlets around the world showcased Hitler&’s homes to audiences eager for behind-the-scenes stories. After the war, fascination with Hitler&’s domestic life continued as soldiers and journalists searched his dwellings for insights into his psychology. The book&’s rich illustrations, many previously unpublished, offer readers a rare glimpse into the decisions involved in the making of Hitler&’s homes and into the sheer power of the propaganda that influenced how the world saw him.&“Inarguably the powder-keg title of the year.&”—Mitchell Owen, Architectural Digest&“A fascinating read, which reminds us that in Nazi Germany the architectural and the political can never be disentangled. Like his own confected image, Hitler&’s buildings cannot be divorced from their odious political hinterland.&”—Roger Moorhouse, Times
Hitler's Berlin
by Stewart SpencerFrom his first visit to Berlin in 1916, Hitler was preoccupied and fascinated by Germany's great capital city. In this vivid and entirely new account of Hitler's relationship with Berlin, Thomas Friedrich explores how Hitler identified with the city, how his political aspirations were reflected in architectural aspirations for the capital, and how Berlin surprisingly influenced the development of Hitler's political ideas. A leading expert on the twentieth-century history of Berlin, Friedrich employs new and little-known German sources to track Hitler's attitudes and plans for the city. Even while he despised both the cosmopolitan culture of the Weimar Republic and the profound Jewish influence on the city, Hitler was drawn to the grandiosity of its architecture and its imperial spirit. He dreamed of transforming Berlin into a capital that would reflect his autocracy, and he used the city for such varied purposes as testing his anti-Semitic policies and demonstrating the might of the Third Reich. Illuminating Berlin's burdened years under Nazi subjection, Friedrich offers new understandings of Hitler and his politics, architectural views, and artistic opinions.
Hitler's Defeat on the Western Front, 1944–1945: Rare Photographs From Wartime Archives (Images of War)
by Hans SeidlerThis WWII pictorial history vividly captures the Allied liberation of Europe from Normandy to Berlin through rare wartime photographs. With this volume in the Images of War series, readers witness the intensity of the fighting as Allied forces make their way from the beaches of Normandy through France and the Low Countries and finally into Germany itself. Despite demoralizing withdrawals and reversals, the German military forces—including the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, Hitlerjugend, and Volkssturm—continued to inflict significant losses on their superior enemies. But when the Allies crossed the Rhine in early 1945 with the Russians closing on Berlin from the East, the shattered remnants of Hitler&’s once all-conquering forces had nowhere to go. Though fanatical elements of Nazi guerrillas continued to fight to the death, most of the survivors accepted surrender. The graphic images in this volume capture the drama of that historic period.
Hitler's Last Hostages: Looted Art and the Soul of the Third Reich
by Mary M. LaneAdolf Hitler's obsession with art not only fueled his vision of a purified Nazi state--it was the core of his fascist ideology. Its aftermath lives on to this day.Nazism ascended by brute force and by cultural tyranny. Weimar Germany was a society in turmoil, and Hitler's rise was achieved not only by harnessing the military but also by restricting artistic expression. Hitler, an artist himself, promised the dejected citizens of postwar Germany a purified Reich, purged of "degenerate" influences.When Hitler came to power in 1933, he removed so-called "degenerate" art from German society and promoted artists whom he considered the embodiment of the "Aryan ideal." Artists who had produced challenging and provocative work fled the country. Curators and art dealers organized their stock. Thousands of great artworks disappeared--and only a fraction of them were rediscovered after World War II.In 2013, the German government confiscated roughly 1,300 works by Henri Matisse, George Grosz, Claude Monet, and other masters from the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive son of one of Hitler's primary art dealers. For two years, the government kept the discovery a secret. In Hitler's Last Hostages, Mary M. Lane reveals the fate of those works and tells the definitive story of art in the Third Reich and Germany's ongoing struggle to right the wrongs of the past.