Lothar Machtan is a professor of modern history at the University of Bremen.
The first of Machtan's works to be translated into English, this is certain to be controversial. A professor of modern and current history at the University of Bremen, Germany, and the author of several scholarly books on 19th-century Germany, Machtan here presents a documented study of Hitler's homosexuality and its impact upon his life and career. Machtan asserts that Hitler's homosexuality was known to some of his associates by the beginning of World War I and later in Vienna. As he became prominent, some of his associates in homoerotic circles of the Nazi movement attempted to blackmail him. These homoerotic undercurrents and Hitler's response to blackmail provide a hitherto neglected perspective on the questions surrounding the origins and development of Nazism. Although documenting homosexuality is a difficult task for historians of periods in which gays were oppressed and repressed, Machtan is able to provide evidence for his assertions as well as a nuanced and readable study of Hitler's sexuality. Libraries that own Joachim Fest's seminal Hitler (LJ 7/74) and Ian Kershaw's Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris (LJ 1/99) and Hitler, 1936-1945: Nemesis (LJ 11/1/00), as well as a selection of the works of George Mosse on Nazi culture, should acquire this work. Barbara Walden, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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