
The Unfathomable Ascent
How Hitler Came to Power
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Narrated by:
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Paul Hodgson
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By:
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Peter Ross Range
About this listen
The chilling and little-known story of Adolf Hitler's eight-year march to the pinnacle of German politics.
On the night of January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler leaned out of a spotlit window of the Reich chancellery in Berlin, bursting with joy. The moment seemed unbelievable, even to Hitler. After an improbable political journey that came close to faltering on many occasions, his march to power had finally succeeded.
While the path of Hitler's rise has been told in books covering larger portions of his life, no previous work has focused solely on his eight-year climb to rule: 1925-1933. Renowned author Peter Ross Range brings this period back to startling life with a narrative history that describes brushes with power, quests for revenge, nonstop electioneering, American-style campaign tactics, and - for Hitler - moments of gloating triumph followed by abject humiliation.
Indeed, this is the tale of a high-school dropout's climb from the infamy of a failed coup to the highest office in Europe's largest country. It is a saga of personal growth and lavish living, a melodrama rife with love affairs and even suicide attempts. But it is also the definitive account of Hitler's unrelenting struggle for control over his raucous movement, as he fought off challenges, built and bullied coalitions, quelled internecine feuds, and neutralized his enemies - all culminating in the creation of the Third Reich and the Western world's descent into darkness. One of the most dramatic and important stories in world history, Hitler's ascent spans Germany's wobbly recovery from World War I through years of growing prosperity and, finally, into crippling depression.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Peter Ross Range (P)2020 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A fast-paced tour-de-force that shows how the German republic wrecked itself from within, Peter Ross Range's The Unfathomable Ascent is a must-read for anyone interested in Adolf Hitler's march to power or the tragic fragility of democracy." (David King, New York Times best-selling author of The Trial of Adolf Hitler)
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Story
Charles Adams is a product of the Minneapolis’s North Side, the city’s poorest neighborhood, and of North High, the state’s poorest school. After graduation he joined the Minneapolis Police Department, overcoming racial prejudice within its ranks to become his alma mater’s resource officer. Then something magical happened. Adams stepped in as football coach, and transformed a winless team into state champions. As North High began to thrive, Adams was hailed as a model of what a Black man from a Black neighborhood might be. That lasted until Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.
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An Rare Perspective
- By E. Williams on 10-06-23
By: Charles Adams, and others
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Do Not Disturb
- The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad
- By: Michela Wrong
- Narrated by: Michela Wrong
- Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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We think we know the story of Africa’s Great Lakes region. Following the Rwandan genocide, an idealistic group of young rebels overthrew the brutal regime in Kigali, ushering in an era of peace and stability that made Rwanda the donor darling of the West, winning comparisons with Switzerland and Singapore. But the truth was considerably more sinister.
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What is true and what isn't?
- By Buretto on 11-30-21
By: Michela Wrong
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NFL Confidential
- True Confessions from the Gutter of Football
- By: Johnny Anonymous
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A current pro player takes fans on a pseudonymous trip through one of the most infamous years of football - the very long, sometimes funny, often controversial 2013-2014 season - sharing raucous, behind-the-scenes, on-the-field, and in-the-locker-room truth about life in the National Football League.
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Really fucking good.
- By K. Cabrera on 01-13-16
By: Johnny Anonymous
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One Fine Day
- Britain's Empire on the Brink
- By: Matthew Parker
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 27 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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September 29, 1923. Once the Palestine Mandate officially takes effect, the British Empire—now covering a quarter of the world’s land and boasting a population of 460 million—is the largest the world has ever seen. But it is also an empire in rapid transition. Nationalist and Pan-African movements are gaining momentum throughout West Africa, thanks as much to Marcus Garvey as to the sustained efforts of local activists and politicians. Moving from London to Kuala Lumpur, Australia to the West Indies, One Fine Day is a breathtaking and unflinching tour of the British Empire at its pinnacle.
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Broad history
- By Ian D. Sheldon on 05-10-24
By: Matthew Parker
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Empireworld
- How British Imperialism Shaped the Globe
- By: Sathnam Sanghera
- Narrated by: Homer Todiwala
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. The empire's influence upon the quarter of the planet it occupied, and its gravitational influence upon the world outside it, has been profound: from the spread of Christianity by missionaries to the shaping international law. Even today, 1 in 3 people drive on the left hand side of the road, an artifact of the British empire. Yet Britain's idea of its imperial history and the world's experience of it are two very different things. Empireworld explores the ways in which British Empire has come to shape the modern world.
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Great info about colonialism
- By Ayako E. on 10-04-24
By: Sathnam Sanghera
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1924
- The Year That Made Hitler
- By: Peter Ross Range
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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Before Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, there was 1924. This was the year of Hitler's final transformation into the self-proclaimed savior and infallible leader who would interpret and distort Germany's historical traditions to support his vision for the Third Reich. Everything that would come - the rallies and riots, the single-minded deployment of a catastrophically evil idea - all of it crystallized in one defining year.
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Excellent book to compare current events
- By Elin on 12-05-16
By: Peter Ross Range
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The Red and the Blue
- The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism
- By: Steve Kornacki
- Narrated by: Steve Kornacki, Ron Butler
- Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Red and the Blue, cable news star and acclaimed journalist Steve Kornacki follows the twin paths of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, two larger-than-life politicians who exploited the weakened structure of their respective parties to attain the highest offices. For Clinton, that meant contorting himself around the various factions of the Democratic party to win the presidency. Gingrich employed a scorched-earth strategy to upend the permanent Republican minority in the House, making him speaker.
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Simply marvelous
- By Hector Gonzalez on 10-04-18
By: Steve Kornacki
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Forty Autumns
- A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
- By: Nina Willner
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family - of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love.
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Excellent look into the divided Germanys
- By Mary Aalgaard on 01-18-18
By: Nina Willner
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Please Please Tell Me Now
- The Duran Duran Story
- By: Stephen Davis
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In Please Please Tell Me Now, best-selling rock biographer Stephen Davis tells the story of Duran Duran, the quintessential band of the 1980s. Their pretty boy looks made them the stars of fledgling MTV, but it was their brilliant musicianship that led to a string of number one hits. By the end of the decade, they had sold 60 million albums; today, they've sold over 100 million albums - and counting.
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The Story You (Probably) Already Know
- By Don on 10-28-21
By: Stephen Davis
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Final Verdict
- The Holocaust on Trial in the 21st Century
- By: Tobias Buck
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The gripping narrative of one of the last Nazi criminal trials in Germany—that of Bruno Dey, a 93-year-old former concentration camp guard charged with aiding the murder of more than 5,000 people—and a larger exploration of Germany's reckoning with the Holocaust, from silence to memory to today's rising tide of fascism and antisemitism.
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Excellent.
- By Amazon Customer on 10-08-24
By: Tobias Buck
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Save Me from the Waves
- An Adventure from Sea to Summit
- By: Jessica Hepburn
- Narrated by: Jessica Hepburn
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Jessica Hepburn is an unlikely athlete–she was labelled the ‘arty’ not the ‘sporty’ one in school. She hates exercise and believes the only reason to do it is for food, booze and box-sets on the sofa. However, in her forties, following a succession of hard and sad life experiences she started to try and exercise her way out of heartbreak. She has now become one of the world’s most extraordinary endurance athletes.
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Unusual but excellent
- By Anonymous User on 08-26-24
By: Jessica Hepburn
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Wasteland
- The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future
- By: Oliver Franklin-Wallis
- Narrated by: Chris Harper
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In Wasteland, journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on a shocking journey inside the waste industry—the secretive multi-billion dollar world that underpins the modern economy, quietly profiting from what we leave behind.
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Big dose of reality - highly recommend!
- By Josie on 04-05-25
Horrifying Story - Yet So Real
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The material made it a tough listen, fascinating
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The best account of Hitler’s rise to power.
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Very interesting read
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I recently finished "The Unfathomable Ascent: How Hitler Came to Power," by Peter Ross Range, which offers a meticulously researched and gripping narrative of the eight critical years from 1925 to 1933, after his release from prison, when Adolf Hitler rose from obscurity to absolute power in Germany and it’s quite a story.
There are many biographies of Hitler, but few focus on this critical period. Range tackles the tough question of how a nation like Germany, with its Reformation history, intellectual legacy, top-tier universities, and love of freedom and order, allowed Hitler to come to power. Yes, Germany faced harsh post-WWI reparations and struggles, but how does that explain Hitler? Range vividly brings to life the crucial steps and missteps that led to one of history's darkest periods and the world’s most devastating war.
Range's strength lies in unraveling the complicated world of Weimar politics. After Hitler's failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, he returned to a shaky Germany, gathered loyal followers, and spread his extreme nationalist and anti-Semitic views. Despite setbacks, Hitler's relentless campaigning and strategic use of propaganda, violence, and threats gradually increased his influence. Range captures these twists and turns with a flair that keeps you hooked.
One standout aspect of Range's narrative is his depiction of the Weimar Republic's downfall. By 1928, Hitler seemed politically insignificant, but the Great Depression changed everything. With Germany's economy in ruins, desperate people turned to extremist ideas. The Nazis capitalized on the chaos, securing 6.4 million votes in the 1930 elections, becoming the second-largest party in the Reichstag and the largest by 1932. However, the Nazis never won a majority in any election, topping out at around 37%, though no other party did either.
Range also highlights the backroom deals and political blunders that helped Hitler rise. He explains how the Nazis exploited the weaknesses of the Weimar political system without winning an electoral majority. His portrayal of figures like Franz von Papen and Kurt Schleicher, whose political maneuverings inadvertently paved the way for Hitler, adds depth to the narrative. Conservative politicians, thinking they could control Hitler, pushed for his appointment as chancellor in 1933. With help from key figures like Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, Hitler quickly took over, using events like the Reichstag fire to crush opposition and seize total power. As the Nazis dominated the political right and refused to compromise, the Communists held the left and also rejected compromise. Both were always in opposition to the center, which had previously ruled but could no longer stand a chance. Despite many opportunities, Hitler's enemies could never unite enough to get rid of him.
Despite covering complex historical events, Range's book is highly readable and balanced. He keeps the narrative clear and engaging, avoiding the heavy detail that can make some history feel like a series of events and dates. He also avoids oversimplifying Hitler’s rise, instead telling a story that helps you understand how Hitler's ascent was both shocking and, in many ways, preventable.
In short, it's an excellent read for anyone curious about how a country as advanced as Germany could fall under the spell of such an evil leader. Range's book is both an eye-opening history lesson and a cautionary tale for our times. To understand the dynamics that led to one of the most catastrophic regimes in history, this book is a must-read. Hitler’s politics were driven by extreme nationalism and a blame culture, and this book highlights the warning from history and its parallels to today. Conservatives thought Hitler could bring them to power while they controlled him. But we know what happened between 1933 and 1945.
How? And could it happen again
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Very insightful, top notch writing, listenable
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Ominous tale . . .
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Nothing New Here
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Very well written
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