Biography

Hardcover. Gotham Books, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 358 pages. Retracing the 1799-1804 odyssey of von Humboldt through South and Central America, Helferich synthesizes the many biographies written about the explorer into a concise appreciation of his personality and scientific significance. The author also appropriately digresses about the history of the places visited by von Humboldt, who was a perceptive reporter of conditions in the Spanish empire immediately before its colonies revolted. Despite almost three centuries of rule by 1799, the Spanish domains still had unexplored territory, tempting von Humboldt, then 30, to seek there the scientific glory he aimed for since his youth in Prussia. Supported by an inheritance and buddy Aime Bonpland, von Humboldt set forth initially to investigate a geographical controversy (Did the Orinoco River connect with the Amazon?) but wowed the world largely with his discoveries in botany, zoology, and geology. Helferich recounts the journey's risks, from piranhas to volcanoes, and his presentation is sure to satisfy reader curiosity about the explorer who had so many places named for him. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Minneapolis, MN, North Loop Books, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 292 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Color and black and white pictures throughout.

Hardcover. New York, Horizon Press, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Non-paginated. Hardcover with dust jacket. Moderate wear to dust jacket with fraying, chipping on corners. Small chunck missing on rear dust jacket. Clean, tight copy. Black and white photos throughout.

Hardcover. Fort Lee NJ, Barricade Books, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY ALLEN on the title page. An autobiography covering Allen's fifty years in radio and T.V. Allen was the creator and first host of the Tonight Show. B&w illust., 308 pages. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1st, 1856, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 493 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated with black & white engravings. Foxing to frontis, title page, and occurring to pages surrounding illustrated pages. Brown cloth covers with fading, rubbing moderate wear. Binding is firm. Good + condition.

Hardcover. New York, Flatiron Books, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 304 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. Black and white photographs throughout. A tight copy.

Hardcover. Middletown CT, CT: E. & H. Clark, 1st, 1823, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, original leather binding with modest wear, 417 pages. Frontispiece portrait with tissue guard. Red leather label with gilt title. Solid binding, mild foxing to pages.

Hardcover. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1st, 1972, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover. Volume I only. 496 pages, several b&w illustrations. Light edgewearm soiling to dust jacket, small closed tear on front cover. Foxing, soiling to top and bottom edge. Else clean and tight.

Hardcover. NY, Penguin Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 642 pages. Gray cloth boards with silver titles to spine. Black & white illustrations throughout. Crisp dust jacket with only minor wear. Very clean & unmarked. Crisp, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Abrams, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 511 pages. Hardcover, slipcase, ribbon marker. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. Candid accounts of the people, hit movies, and adventures that have shaped his career enliven these memoirs from the director of Romeo and Juliet, Endless Love, and Jesus of Nazareth. 24 black-and-white, 16 color illustrations.

Hardcover. New York, Doubleday, 1st, 1991, 604 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Light yellowing and wear to top edge of dust jacket. Minor foxing to top edge of textblock. An otherwise clean, unmarked copy. Recollections by fellow artists and collaborators elucidate the life of teacher and choreographer George Balanchine.

Hardcover. London, Argus Books, 1st, 1930, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 391 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. B&w illustrations by Frank Pape. Dust jacket faded on spine, chipped. Cover boards have minor wear to black covers. Gilt lettering. Numbered 1490/1500 American copies. Internally good, and over all clean tight copy.

Hardcover. London, Chatto & Windus, reprint, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. A classic account of settler life and experiences in the early days of Kenya, by one of Kenya's most prolific and readable authors. Inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Indianapolis, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1st, 1926, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 293 pages, b&w illustrations. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR ON FRONT FLY LEAF. Red cloth with gilt titles. Covers worn with rubbing/fraying on edges, spine faded. Internally very good.

Hardcover. US, Atlas & Co, 6th, 2008, 240 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Black and white pictures throughout.

Hardcover. Briston RI, Herreshoff Marine Museum Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 126 pages, b&w illustrations. Memoir by one of the great American yacht & marine designers & builders. "This book is an insider's account of many years of work at the core of America's Cup contests". SIGNED BY HERRESHOFF on title page. Clean, in a bright dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Bantam, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 518 pages, b&w illustrations. Appetite for America is the incredible real-life story of Fred Harvey--told in depth for the first time ever--as well as the story of this country's expansion into the Wild West of Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, of the great days of the railroad, of a time when a deal could still be made with a handshake and the United States was still uniting. As a young immigrant, Fred Harvey worked his way up from dishwasher to household name: He was Ray Kroc before McDonald's, J. Willard Marriott before Marriott Hotels, Howard Schultz before Starbucks. His eating houses and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad (including historic lodges still in use at the Grand Canyon) were patronized by princes, presidents, and countless ordinary travelers looking for the best cup of coffee in the country. Harvey's staff of carefully screened single young women--the celebrated Harvey Girls--were the country's first female workforce and became genuine Americana, even inspiring an MGM musical starring Judy Garland. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, Illustrated with color, black & white plates. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. London, Routledge, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 212 pages, b&w illustrations. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by the author with a note by the author laid-in. Light edgewear to dust jacket, faint foxing to top edge. Clean, tight copy. This book discusses the home life of Queen Victoria in the context of her marriage to Prince Albert and her relationships with her children. Whittle describes the purchase, remodeling and rebuilding of Osborne House and Balmoral Castle, a subject often given little attention in other books on the couple's life together.

Hardcover. New York, Dodd, Mead & Co, reprint, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on half-title page. 162 pages. The story of the life of Kate Greenaway and her work with illustrating. In very good condition, some yellowing to edges of pages. The dust jacket is laminated, but cover is a bit yellowed. Minor bumping to corners, otherwise a very clean and tight copy. Small label at bottom of dj spine.

Hardcover. New York , Norton , 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 190 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. Cipe Pineles was art director for leading fashion magazines between 1930 and 1960. Tracing Pineles's career from young immigrant to "ranking" female in the design world, Martha Scotford chronicles a time when few women were involved in design and assesses Cipe's brilliant contributions to graphic design and magazine design in particular.

Hardcover. NY, The America Press, 1st, 1932, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 180 pages, blue cloth with gilt lettering. Scores of glossy B&W photographs from the air and ground. Maps of Alaska on both sets of end papers with airplane and dog team routes. First edition of this Jesuit priest's 1600 mile expedition memoir about mushing down the Yukon River, visiting Jesuit Missions, and into the erupting Aniackchak Crater. Accounts first published in The Saturday Evening Post. This is an ex-library copy with stamping and residue to endpapers, but clean and tight inside.

NY, Random House, 1st US, 1968, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, black cloth stamped in green on front, gilt on spine. 313 pages. Lacouture's biography of Ho Chi Minh examines the North Vietnamese leader's political development from his early years in France, through World War Two, and up until 1968 when this book was first published. Lacouture doesn't avoid the negative aspects of his political career, but these negatives (e.g. harsh control of the starving North Vietnamese in the 50s) only help to put in perspective Vietnam's similarly harsh treatment by Western and Eastern powers alike. A former Le Monde correspondent, author has also written books on Vietnam and DeGaulle. Internally bright and clean.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday & Company, 1st, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue boards with black cloth spine. 469 pages. INSCRIBED BY NIZER on half-title page. Business card of Ben Bodne, owner of the Algonquin Hotel, stapled to title page. Otherwise a clean, tight copy. No dust jacket.

Softcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, reprint, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 362 pages, 16 pages of b&w illustrations. Who was Vivian Maier? Many people know her as the reclusive Chicago nanny who wandered the city for decades, constantly snapping photographs, which were unseen until they were discovered in a seemingly abandoned storage locker. They revealed her to be an inadvertent master of twentieth-century American street photography. Not long after, the news broke that Maier had recently died and had no surviving relatives. Soon the whole world knew about her preternatural work, shooting her to stardom almost overnight. But, as Pamela Bannos reveals in this meticulous and passionate biography, this story of the nanny savant has blinded us to Maier's true achievements, as well as her intentions. Most important, Bannos argues, Maier was not a nanny who moonlighted as a photographer; she was a photographer who supported herself as a nanny. In Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife, Bannos contrasts Maier's life with the mythology that strangers-mostly the men who have profited from her work-have created around her absence. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, McGraw-Hill , 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hatdcover, 364 pages, b&w photo illustrations. notes. bibliography. index. This is the definitive life story of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious "Angel of Death" Responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands of prisoners at Auschwitz, Mengele vanished into South America after World War II, where he remained free for more than three decades. How did he escape from the Allies? And how did he elude his pursuers? Granted exclusive and unrestricted access to the Mengele family papers and diaries, Posner and Ware have sifted through more than 5,000 pages of Mengele's writings to construct this extraordinary record of his life~from his childhood in Germany to the horrors of Auschwitz to his years in exile. previous owner's name, notation on front endpapers. Otherwise a clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Appleton & Co., 1st, 1900, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light green cloth with gilt and b&w decoration, 480 pages. Top edge gilt. Front and rear hinges tender. Cloth covers rubbed at corners and along edges. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 239 pages. Hardcover. (SIGNED BY AUTHOR) Color illustrations throughout. White cover boards, gilt title on spine and design on front cover. Dust jacket unclipped, excellent, has previous bookstore's label on back cover.

Hardcover. Hoboken NJ, Wiley, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 508 pages.Take a dazzling journey through the Gilded Age, the period from roughly the 1870s to 1914, when bluebloods from older, established families met the nouveau riche headlong-railway barons, steel magnates, and Wall Street speculators-and forged an uneasy and glittering new society in New York City. The best of the best were Caroline Astor's 400 families, and she shaped and ruled this high society with steel. A Season of Splendor is a panoramic sweep across this sumptuous landscape, presenting the families, the wealth, the balls, the clothing, and the mansions in vivid detail-as well as the shocking end of the era with the sinking of the Titanic. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon and Schuster, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 494 pages. B&w photos. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Jonathan Cape, 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn and chipped dust jacket. An English clergyman who was also Naval Chaplain, aircraftman, schoolmaster, barman, and hotel manager recounts a eventful life writing from a remote part of Ireland. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Brattleboro VT, Stephen Green Press, 1st, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY AIKEN on half title page. Additionally INSCRIBED BY RALPH NADING HILL on the front fly leaf. Appears that Hill obtained signed copies and gave them out to friends. Enclosed is publisher's promotional schedule.

Softcover. NY, John Wiley & Sons, 1st pbk, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover,452 pages, b&w illustrations. Harlow Unger's Lafayette is a remarkable and dramatic account of a life as fully lived as it is possible to imagine, that of Gilbert de Motier, marquis de Lafayette. To American readers Unger's biography will provide a stark reminder of just how near run a thing was our War of Independence and the degree to which our forefathers' victory hinged on the help of our French allies, marshaled for George Washington by his 'adopted' son, Lafayette. But even more absorbing and much less well known to the general reader will be Unger's account of Lafayette's idealistic but naive efforts to plant the fruits of the American democracy he so admired in the unreceptive soil of his homeland. Short inscription to half-title page, otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Beach Lloyd Publishers, 2nd Ed., 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. pictorial boards, 142 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on the title page. I had all kinds of courage and guts; I don t know where that came from, says Fernande Keufgens Davis ( Freddie ) of the risks that she took as a teenager in the Belgian Resistance of World War II. After the shock of finding her formerly occupied village annexed as part of Germany, Davis was drafted to work in a German munitions factory. Determined not to aid the enemy, she jumped from the train and went underground. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 522 pages, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index, In this second installment of Caro's epic biography we witness a momentous turning point in American politics: the tragic last stand of the old politics versus the new. Following Johnson through his service in the Second World War, it describes the foundation and the myths of his long-concealed fortune. The explosive heart of the book is Caro's revelation of the shocking true story of the fiercely contested 1948 senatorial election, which Johnson won with the the 87 votes that changed history. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. Bennington, VT, Images from the Past, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 86 pages. Softcover with paper wrappers. Black and white photographs throughout. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Macmillan Company, 1st, 1903, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 372 pages, with illustrations, gilt top edge and faded gilt title on spine, gold cloth bound. Light spine edge fray and corner bumps, minor rubbing, light tape repair to front fly leaf with previous owner's bookplate. Overall, internally clean, bright and tight copy.

Hardcover. Philadephia, PA, J.B. Lippincott Comapny, 6th pr., 1913, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 page. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Black and white pictures throughout. Gutter cracked on title page with fabric showing through. Spine lettering faded. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York , G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 356 pages, Hardcover with dust jacket. 46 B&W photos and a map. Dust jacket edgeworn, chipped, soiled. Light flecking to cloth blue color. Tight copy. Greenland expedition in the Effie M. Morrissey, commanded by Capt. Bob Bartlett. Streeter's account featuring the Montana Cowboy, Carl Dunrud, who came aboard the arctic exploration vessel, Morrissey, specifically for the purpose of roping and bringing back live polar bears and other Arctic animals. Numerous black and white photographs showing various scenes of Greenland and native Inuit costumes and habits.

Hardcover. Boston, A.J. Wright, 1st, 1848, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 300 pages, illustrated with 6 b&w engravings from sketches done by the author. Interesting sailing, whaling adventures by a 14-year veteran seaman. Embossed brown cloth with gilt design on cover, gilt lettering and design on spine. Spine cloth chipped, worn at top and bottom. Previous owner's signature in pencil on front fly leaf. Corners show wear, internally very good with only minor foxing.

Softcover. Destiny Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 218 pages. The author wrote both the Superman and Batman comics as well as many other comic-book titles during the 1940s and 1950s. He is the author of two philosophical novels, No Such Mirrors and The Blowtop, which was described by the New York Times as the first conscious existentialist novel in America.

Hardcover. New York, Harper Collins, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 181 pages. Crisp photographs throughout. Some black and white, some color. Internally clean. Tight and clean copy. The noted designer shares his opinions on and memories of fifty years of fashion and its driving forces as well as Hollywood, men, women, and friendship.

Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer John Matteson, an account of the "Susan Sontag" of nineteenth-century America.A brilliant writer and a fiery social critic, Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was perhaps the most famous American woman of her generation. Outspoken and quick-witted, idealistic and adventurous, she became the leading female figure in the transcendentalist movement, wrote a celebrated column of literary and social commentary for Horace Greeley's newspaper, and served as the first foreign correspondent for an American newspaper. While living in Europe she fell in love with an Italian nobleman, with whom she became pregnant out of wedlock. In 1848 she joined the fight for Italian independence and, the following year, reported on the struggle while nursing the wounded within range of enemy cannons. Amid all these strivings and achievements, she authored the first great work of American feminism: Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Despite her brilliance, however, Fuller suffered from self-doubt and was plagued by ill health. John Matteson captures Fuller's longing to become ever better, reflected by the changing lives she led. 28 black-and-white illustrations. Smallbump to top corner otherwise like new.

Hardcover. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1st ed., 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 292 pages. Blue cloth boards. Pictorial dust jacket is tinted with light fading to spine. Otherwise, tight clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1st, 1932, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark blue cloth with gilt design and lettering, 437 pages. Includes [9] leaves of plates, illustrations, portraits, bibliographical references, and index. A fine biography on America's sixth President, and the second Adams to hold that office. Clark gives equal attention to Adams' early diplomatic career, his time in State politics, in the U.S. Senate, as Secretary of State, and of his extensive career as an elder-statesman after his Presidency. Spine gilt faded, corners worn, name on front endpapers, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Pais turns his attention to the great physicist's life outside of science, with an informal, almost kalaidoscopic portrait of Einstein--his personal life and his public persona ("my mythical namesake who has made my life so burdensome"), his scientific contributions, and his thoughts on religion, philosophy, and politics, on Israel and Zionism, on the rise of Nazism and McCarthyism, and on much more. Pais offers a candid look at Einstein's troubled personal life--his two failed marriages, his first child Lieserl, who was born out of wedlock (and of whom all trace has vanished), his estranged son Hans Albert, also a scientist, who felt his father had abandoned the family, and his son Eduard, who gradually descended into madness. Of course, any book on Einstein must touch upon science, and Pais includes several illuminating chapters, one of which offers general readers an accessible explanation of relativity, and another traces the long road to Einstein's Nobel Prize (after being nominated almost every year from 1909 to 1920, he finally won in 1921--not for relativity, but for his work on the photoelectric effect). On the lighter side, Pais includes samples from Einstein's "curiosity file," in which he kept crank letters, marriage proposals, hate mail (one began "You are the prince of idiocy, the count of imbecility, the duke of cretinism, the baron of morons"), and the like. But the heart of the book is the final section, where Pais traces Einstein's lifeas seen through the media. Here we not only meet Einstein the living legend--receiving the keys to New York City from flamboyant Mayor Jimmy Walker, attending the Hollywood premier of City Lights with Charlie Chaplin--but also witness his extensive involvement in the issues of his day.

Hardcover. Lunenburg VT, Stinehour Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth with gilt lettering and color label on front cover. 165 pages, b&w photos. Hildegarde Lasell was a concert singer. "Miss Lasell sang with refinement and cultivation," commented a reviewer in 1936, "she is obviously a serious student of the meaning and values of the music she interprets." She appeared in her husband's two short avant-garde films. She played Madeline Usher in the silent horror film The Fall of the House of Usher (1928),and Lot's wife in the Biblical adaptation Lot in Sodom (1933).In the 1950s, she persuaded composer Alec Wilder to write an original soundtrack for the 1928 film. Watson was vice-president of the Rochester (NY)Historical Society, and wrote the history of the society's Woodside mansion in 1962. She received a medal from the Rochester Museum and Science Center in 1972, alongside fellow recipients including Robert Jastrow, Roger Tory Peterson, and Yousuf Karsh. Her memoir, The Edge of the Woods: A Memoir (1979) was published posthumously. Some of her correspondence with poet Marianne Moore was also published posthumously. Limited to 1,000 copies. Clean.

Hardcover. London, Sampson Low Son & Co, 1st, 1860, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 492 pages. Hardcover with 3/4 leather spine and marbled surfaces on all sides. First English edition published same year as first American edition. A clean, tight copy. moderate chipping to cover edges. and some rips to dry leather. Gilt title paste-down gone from spine.

Hardcover. London, Bell and Daldy, 1st, 1864, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 452 pages. Red cloth covers with embossed graphic border and gilt titles to spine. Light rubbing to covers, slight wear to cover edges and corners, front cover and backstrip of spine separated from page block, though page block still attached to rear cover.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Since 1945 there have been more than one hundred biographies of Hitler, and countless other books on him and the Third Reich. What happens when so many people reinterpret the life of a single individual? Dangerously, the cumulative portrait that begins to emerge can suggest the face of a mythic antihero whose crimes and errors blur behind an aura of power and conquest. By reversing the process, by making Hitler's biographers--rather than Hitler himself--the subject of inquiry, Lukacs reveals the contradictions that take us back to the true Hitler of history. Like an attorney, Lukacs puts the biographies on trial. He gives a masterly account of all the major works and of the personalities, methods, and careers of the biographers (one cannot separate the historian from his history, particularly in this arena); he looks at what is still not known (and probably never will be) about Hitler; he considers various crucial aspects of the real Hitler; and he shows how different biographers have either advanced our understanding or gone off track. By singling out those who have been involved in, or co-opted into, an implicit "rehabilitation of Hitler," Lukacs draws powerful conclusions about Hitler's essential differences from other monsters of history, such as Napoleon, Mussolini, and Stalin, and--equally important--about Hitler's place in the history of this century and of the world.