Being Polite To Hitler

After teaching and raising her family for most of her life, Agnes Scofield realizes that she is truly weary of the routine her life has become. But how, at 51, can she establish an identity apart from what has so long defined her? Often eloquent, sometimes blunt, and always full of fire, The Scofield clan is not a family that keeps its opinions to itself. As much as she'd like to, Agnes can no more deflect their adamant advice than she can step down as their matriarch. And despite her newfound freedom, Agnes finds herself becoming even more entangled in the family web. She shepherds her daughter-in-law, Lavinia, who moves in with her own two daughters to escape her husband's drinking. She puts out fires, smoothes fraying nerves, and, stunned as anyone, receives a marriage proposal. Having expected her life to become smaller, Agnes is amazed to see it grow instead. Robb Forman Dew intricately weaves together personal and family life into a richly wrought tapestry of the country in the 1950s and beyond. Being Polite to Hitler is a moving, frank, and surprising portrait of post-World War II America.

"Originally published in hardcover by Little, Brown and Company, January 2011. First Back Bay paperback edition, October 2011." --T.p. verso.

This fresh treatment of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany reveals how the close relationship between Mussolini and Hitler influenced both men. From 1934 until 1944 Mussolini met Hitler numerous times, and the two developed a relationship that deeply affected both countries. While Germany is generally regarded as the senior power, Christian Goeschel demonstrates just how much history has underrepresented Mussolini’s influence on his German ally. A scholar of twentieth-century Germany and Italy, Goeschel revisits all of Mussolini and Hitler’s key meetings to examine how they constructed a powerful image of a strong Fascist-Nazi relationship that still resonates with the general public. His portrait of Mussolini draws on sources ranging beyond political history to reveal a leader who, at times, shaped Hitler’s decisions and was not the gullible buffoon he’s often portrayed as. The first comprehensive study of the Mussolini-Hitler relationship, this book is a must-read for scholars and anyone interested in the history of European fascism, World War II, or political leadership.

An acclaimed historian of twentieth century Germany provides a vivid account of Hitler’s rise to power and its intimate connection to the Bavarian capital. The immediate aftermath of the Great War and the Versailles Treaty created a perfect storm of economic, social, political and cultural factors which facilitated the rapid rise of Adolf Hitler’s political career and the birth of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. The breeding ground for this world-changing evolution was the city of Munich. In Hitler’s Munich, renowned historian David Ian Hall examines the origins and growth of Hitler’s National Socialism through the lens of this unique city. By connecting the sites where Hitler and his accomplices built the movement, Hall offers a clear and concrete understanding of the causes, background, motivation, and structures of the Party. Hitler’s Munich is a cultural and political portrait of the city, a biography of the Fuhrer, and a history of National Socialism. All three interacted in this expertly rendered exploration of their interconnections and significance.

Nazi Germany has been crushed, but is the war really over? Klara, Hitler’s personal cook, swears she glimpsed him fleeing the Berlin bunker via a secret tunnel. The world needs undeniable proof of the Fuhrer’s death, but it’s not that simple. While Allied intelligence agents scour Europe to find such proof, and a Hitler double – ‘the Wolf’ – lays a false trail across two continents, the real Hitler hides out in a Polish monastery, desperate to find his gold train so he can fund the Fourth Reich. Klara, already pregnant with Martin Bormann’s child, is one of the countless women brutally raped as Russian forces take Berlin. She miscarries and can’t help wondering if she will ever be free of the war’s burden. Meanwhile, her sister Natalka is working with the Polish government, tracking down and executing Nazi fugitives. She locates Klara and recruits her to help track Hitler: as his former cook, Klara can infiltrate his inner circle. They find Hitler’s hideout via a tip-off. Klara makes tentative contact: the Fuhrer, weakened and isolated, is thrilled to have her back as his cook – and companion. He feels no threat from her but – profoundly traumatised by the war, the death camps, the rape and miscarriage – Klara can take no more. Following a defining act of conscience, she gains closure at last, for both herself and the crippled world. But one final twist awaits, revealing a future she couldn’t possibly have imagined!

Can an elderly literary snob shape a middle-aged dilettante into a man of sufficient substance to neutralize the potential for evil in Hitler's identical twin? Cranky Myrtle Halstead, a wealthy resident of San Francisco's most elegant retirement highrise, becomes enamored of a man half her age--the suave and untrustworthy Bruno de Carlo. She resolves to school him in classic literature and turn him into a man of integrity. Unwittingly, she prepares the Italian American for an unprecedented task two decades following her death. He must turn Hitler's twin brother into a successful painter in order to keep him out of politics and save the world from another global catastrophe. A colorful cast of quirky characters moves the plot forward in a series of humorous missteps and misunderstandings. In this thought-provoking tale, nature and nurture compete over the souls of a jetsetter and of Hitler's twin brother in contemporary Baghdad by the Bay. In this singular, speculative, and heartwarming story, chance events can have enormous consequences. Find the surprising answer to an intriguing question of historical hindsight: What if Adolf Hitler had had a different profession?

Robb Forman Dew's cult first novel explores themes of familial and romantic bonds as it tells the story of a woman whose husband stays behind in New England while she and their children spend the summer in her Midwestern hometown.

An exploration of the critical, formative years Adolf Hitler spent in Vienna, this study is both a cultural and political portrait of the city, and a biography of Hitler from 1906 to 1913. Photos and line illustrations.