Description
Much of the history books have recorded Adolf Hitler as the most evil man to ever live. A raving madman who murdered six million Jews and tried to take over the world by force, for no reason whatsoever. To be compared to Hitler, or to be called a Nazi, is to be condemned as the epitome of evil.
A seemingly infinite amount of energy and resources are poured into efforts to prevent such horrors from ever resurfacing. A never ending campaign against “racism” and “hate speech” has caused America and Europe to abandon what were once proud traditions of intellectual rigor, academic freedom, and freedom of speech.
Yet, in the midst of all this political and legal action, so few have bothered to pick up the man’s book and see for themselves what motives drove him to do what he did. How can one hope to prevent another Hitler from coming to power, without knowing what Hitler said?
The prevailing narrative today is that anyone who disagrees with a leftist is a Nazi. Accepting leftist narratives necessarily implies that everyone who voted for Trump is a fascist, which is about half the country. Could the leftists have been right all along? Is Nazism merely the struggle for national greatness?
Read this book, and find out for yourself.
Mein Kampf was (perhaps obviously) originally written in German, and there have been several attempts to translate it to English which have all caused varying degrees of controversy. Hitler had unique verbal talents, and did not write the book by hand, but rather dictated it to others who put the words to page while he was incarcerated. He had a way with words that can be difficult to fully capture when translating from one language to another, which has caused much of the controversy regarding the translations of the book.
The Stalag Edition is said to be the only complete, unabridged, and officially authorised English translation ever issued by the Nazi party. I read this version in the custody of the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right rally. I can testify from the experience that it is full of grammatical errors and can at times be difficult to follow along with.
The James Murphy translation makes a nearly identical claim, but is said by readers to be missing about 20% of the book and riddled with errors. Suspicions abound that these errors and omissions are intentional, as Murphy died before completing the book and possible subversives finished the project for him.
Among reviews for remaining translations, the Ford and Manheim translations battle for supremacy. I listened to much the audiobook version of the Ford translation, and found the experience enjoyable. But Ford was not a native German speaker, and though it contains helpful footnotes for the reader to understand certain contexts, criticisms over translation abound.
The copy for sale here is the Manheim translation. I cannot claim to have read it yet, but I like what I hear about it. Despite Manheim’s open hostility to Hitler, and anti-Nazi footnotes, it is said to be the easiest to read, and most accurately translated by many reviewers. This is perhaps thanks to the fact that Manheim was a native German speaker.
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