Goebbels: a Biography

"As a young man, Joseph Goebbels was a budding narcissist with constant need of approval. Through political involvement, he found personal affirmation within the German National Socialist Party. In this comprehensive volume, Peter Longerich documents Goebbels' descent into antisemitism and ideology and ascent through the ranks of the Nazi party, where he became an integral member Hitler's inner circle and where he shaped a brutal campaign of Nazi propaganda. In life and in his grisly family suicide, Goebbels was one of Hitler's most loyal accolytes. Though powerful in the party and in wartime Germany, Longerich's Goebbels is a man dogged by insecurities and consumed by his fierce adherence to the Nazi cause. Longerich engages and challenges the careful self-portrait that Goebbels left behind in his diaries, and, as he delves deep into the mind of Hitler's master propagandist, Longerich discovers first-hand how the Nazi message was conceived. This complete portrait of the man behind the message is sure to become a standard for historians and students of the holocaust for years to come"--

1941/42 -- We can see in our mind's eye a happy people : offensives and setbacks -- Do you want total war? : the Second Winter Crisis -- The masses have become somewhat skeptical or one could even say are in the grip of a permanent state of hopelessness : crisis as a permanent state -- I have no idea what the Führer's going to do in the end : the search for a way out -- ... virtually a wartime dictatorship on the home front : between an apocalyptic mood and total war -- But when will there be some action? : downfall.

Prologue, 1897-1933 : to advance at any price -- Ringa a song eternally from youth's happy hours : Joseph Goebbels on his childhood and youth -- Spare the rod and spoil the child : Goebbels' path to National Socialism -- Working with the mind is the greatest sacrifice : positioning himself in the early NSDAP -- Faith moves mountains : political beginnings in Berlin -- Struggle is the father of all things : the Gauleiter and the capital of the Reich -- A life full of work and struggle is truly a blessing for all time : politics between Berlin and Munich -- Dare to live dangerously! : Goebbels' radicalism and Hitler's policy of 'legality' -- Now we must gain power ... …