This is a different look at history. This is a peek into Hetler's mind via his cars. He started with a fairly basic car, but once he was in a wreck in a Benz, she said he would only ride in those. This book gets very specific about the cars and the way that Hitler was so into them. This is a descriptive and unique look at vehicles that the Nazis used.

I recently concluded my perusal of "Hitler's Motorcars: The Fuhrer's Vehicles From the Birth of the Nazi Party to the Fall of the Third Reich," authored by John Starkey and published by Pen and Sword, Frontline Books. I am working from an ARC which the publisher graciously provided to me. This charming text is best viewed as a kind of very basic primer on Hitler's favored automobiles and makes no claim to be a comprehensive historical study. Nonetheless, for the casual student of the automobile or the Third Reich, this book is more than adequate as an introduction and a sort of jumping off point for further study. Many of you will be aware of Hitler's affinity for fast cars that could be used as political props on his barnstorming political campaigns of the early 1930's and later as a backdrop for his political machinations designed to both represent and mirror the technological and aesthetic prowess of the German automobile industry. The author focuses, with good reason, principally on Mercedes-Benz (which served as the favored automobile of both Hitler and his political acolytes). From his time as a "political prisoner" in the 1920's until his death in 1945, Hitler's regime was often represented by two Mercedes-Benz models, the 770, known as Der Grosser Mercedes because of its imposing size and design, and the even more militant model known as the G4 (a six wheeled off-road command car usually seen in an overtly militarized trim and often photographed in that context). To this day, both models are instantly recognizable as symbols of the Nazi regime. To be sure the author alludes briefly to Hitler's backing of road racing and influence in the development of the Volkswagen as well as his pioneering use of "his" cars as both props and psychological tools in his political and military endeavors. Details of the two models mentioned earlier are provided in some depth, and they are very useful in understanding the cars themselves. The author skillfully avoids getting mired in the post-war controversies over what happened to Hitler's personal car, a long standing and murky subject which has been used to promote many candidates for this dubious distinction, and Starkey seems to imply, quite properly, that this whole quest is something of a red herring predicated on the notion that Hitler had a single auto when, in fact, he kept a significant number of these cars available for state use right up until the end, and he was photographed in many of them. I think this book would be useful to anyone looking into the Third Reich's use of technology as a tool of manipulation or simply fascinated with the history of the automobile and interested in the storied marques of the German automobile industry.

This was one of those interesting history books that you read as a sort of light read. You're not getting any groundbreaking historiography, but instead a quick look at some cars; many high-end luxury cars in their day.