A detailed, insightful account of the events which culminated in Adolf Hitler's taking power in January 1933. Combating the prevailing view that Nazi rule was inevitable - a result of what T.S. Eliot called "the great impersonal forces" of history - the book shows how luck, political intrigue and the personal weaknesses of Hitler's more powerful, traditional conservative opponents paved the way to his chancellorship. The book provides a portrait of Hitler and the other main players in this political drama: President and ageing war hero Marshal Paul von Hindenburg; his miscalculating Chancellor, General Kurt von Schleicher (whom Hitler would later murder); and Hitler's devious co-conspirator, ex-chancellor Franz von Papen....