The Hitler Conspiracies

The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination

By: Richard J. Evans

Narrated by: Leighton Pugh

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

Brought to you by Penguin. 

The renowned historian of the Third Reich takes on the conspiracy theories surrounding Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, in a vital history book for the 'post-truth' age.

The idea that nothing happens by chance in history, that nothing is quite what it seems to be at first sight, that everything is the result of the secret machinations of malign groups of people manipulating everything from behind the scenes - these notions are as old as history itself. But conspiracy theories are becoming more popular and more widespread in the 21st century. Nowhere have they become more obvious than in revisionist accounts of the history of the Third Reich. Long-discredited conspiracy theories have taken on a new lease of life, given credence by claims of freshly discovered evidence and novel angles of investigation.

In The Hitler Conspiracies renowned historian Richard Evans takes five widely discussed claims involving Hitler and the Nazis and subjects them to forensic scrutiny: that the Jews were conspiring to undermine civilisation, as outlined in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that the German army was 'stabbed in the back' by socialists and Jews in 1918, that the Nazis burned down the Reichstag in order to seize power, that Rudolf Hess' flight to the UK in 1941 was sanctioned by Hitler and conveyed peace terms suppressed by Churchill and that Hitler escaped the bunker in 1945 and fled to South America. In doing so, it teases out some surprising features that these, and other conspiracy theories, have in common.

This is a history book, but it is a history book for the age of 'post-truth' and 'alternative facts': a book for our own troubled times.

©2020 Richard J. Evans (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Interesting book, very informative on Fake History

Excellent deconstruction of Nazi-related conspiracy theories. Should move onto JFK, Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Moon landings etc.

So-so

Well it was ok. I dont believe the conspiracy theories the author was debunking, most of them anyway. But he went on and on and covered relatively little. And towards the end it got very dull.

Simply brilliant

This is a brilliant book where a fabulous, analytical and deeply scholarly author systematically destroys conspiracy theories and the “evidence “ presented by their exponents to support them. There is quite a lot of scorn and no little anger here.