Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics

Featuring a new introduction by the author. A starling reassessment of Hitlers aims and motivations Frederic Spotts Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics is an adroitly argued and highly original work that provides a key to fuller understanding of the Third Reich. Spotts convincingly demonstrates that contrary to the traditional view that Hitler had no life outside of politics Hitlers interest in the arts was as intense as his racism-and that he used the arts to disguise the heinous crimes that were the means to fulfilling his ends. Hitlers vision of the Aryan superstate was to be expressed as much in art as in politics: culture was not only the end to which power should aspire but the means of achieving it. Filled with evocative photographs and reproductions from Hitlers 1925 sketchbook "Spottss study of the Fuhrers fascination with architecture painting sculpture and music is ...elegantly composed and richly documented" (The New Yorker).