The Unfathomable Ascent How Hitler Came to Power

The chilling story of Adolf Hitler's eight-year march to the pinnacle of German politics

Adolf Hitler's insurgent path to power from 1925 to 1933 is one of the most dramatic, startling, and important stories in world history. Culminating in Hitler's historic climb to totalitarian reign, this period marks his progression through the shifting political maze of the Weimar Republic and the tumultuous rise of the Nazi Party. Far from an irresistible force of politics, Hitler's passage was one underscored by personal power plays, economic instability, gloating triumphs, and near failures.

A political chapter that spans Germany's wobbly recovery from World War I through years of growing prosperity and crippling depression, this period marks Hitler's unrelenting struggle for control over his radical, raucous movement. It includes brushes with power and quests for revenge, nonstop electioneering and American-style campaign tactics and, for Hitler, moments of immense success and feared humiliation.

Following an improbable, serpentine journey, The Unfathomable Ascent is a complex story with one dangerous climax: Hitler's sweeping ascent into political power, and the western world's descent into historic darkness.