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Kaiser and Fuhrer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics
There are some remarkable parallels, and some equally interesting differences, between Adolf Hitler and Germany's earlier ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II. The most obvious parallel is that both were cult figures who brought their country to ruin and the world to war, but when Robert G.L. Waite began to seriously compare the two men, the number of specific similarities was striking. Kaiser and F?hrer is the first in-depth examination of the similarities and differences between these two twentieth-century political leaders.
Waite uses a psychological approach to throw light on the personal lives and politics of Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler. He compares their intellectual worlds, their wartime strategies, and their tortured childhoods. Both men, we discover, had dual personalities - they could be cruel and kind, cowardly and brave, grandiose and vulnerable. Both exhibited homosexual tendencies yet were strongly attractive to women. We see how the personal pathologies of these two men heavily influenced the public policies that resulted in catastrophe.
Thoroughly documented and engagingly written this is a classic work of scholarship that will fascinate historians, psychologists, and general readers alike.
Waite uses a psychological approach to throw light on the personal lives and politics of Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler. He compares their intellectual worlds, their wartime strategies, and their tortured childhoods. Both men, we discover, had dual personalities - they could be cruel and kind, cowardly and brave, grandiose and vulnerable. Both exhibited homosexual tendencies yet were strongly attractive to women. We see how the personal pathologies of these two men heavily influenced the public policies that resulted in catastrophe.
Thoroughly documented and engagingly written this is a classic work of scholarship that will fascinate historians, psychologists, and general readers alike.
- GenresGermany
720 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1998
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May 15, 2025
Quotes of note:
“After completing his massive dual biography of Stalin and Hitler, Lord Bullock reached the melancholy conclusion, ‘You can’t explain people. It’s one of the fallacies.’”
Preface. In Kaiser and Fuhrer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 2016, Robert G.L. Waite
“Over 90% of German elementary school teachers voluntarily joined the Nazi party.”
Kaiser and Fuhrer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 2016, Robert G.L. Waite, page 226
“The death rate of Jews in the Netherlands was the highest of all western countries: about 75% were turned in to the Nazis and murdered.”
Kaiser and Fuhrer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 2016, Robert G.L. Waite, page 191-192
“We cannot understand the past without some ability to get into the skin of others… We need, in Aristotle’s phrase, to ‘reconstruct imaginatively’ what a past person imagined, hoped, wished, feared.” – Isaiah Berlin
“After completing his massive dual biography of Stalin and Hitler, Lord Bullock reached the melancholy conclusion, ‘You can’t explain people. It’s one of the fallacies.’”
Preface. In Kaiser and Fuhrer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 2016, Robert G.L. Waite
“Over 90% of German elementary school teachers voluntarily joined the Nazi party.”
Kaiser and Fuhrer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 2016, Robert G.L. Waite, page 226
“The death rate of Jews in the Netherlands was the highest of all western countries: about 75% were turned in to the Nazis and murdered.”
Kaiser and Fuhrer: A Comparative Study of Personality and Politics, University of Toronto Press, 2016, Robert G.L. Waite, page 191-192
“We cannot understand the past without some ability to get into the skin of others… We need, in Aristotle’s phrase, to ‘reconstruct imaginatively’ what a past person imagined, hoped, wished, feared.” – Isaiah Berlin
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review