Hitler and Film

“A tightly focused and illuminating monograph. . . . Niven’s study is packed with expert opinion and fascinating tidbits.”—Thomas Doherty, Film Quarterly

“Bill Niven’s book is important for social and cultural historians as well as biographers of Hitler.  It expertly shows how an authoritarian ruler can influence an entire people through carefully administered doses of select propaganda.  In the Third Reich, apart from having to please Hitler personally, films were made to serve exactly that purpose.”—Michael H. Kater, author of The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich

“Ground-breaking. Niven offers fascinating new insights into Hitler's obsessive and surprising viewing habits and how he exploited the arts of cinema and documentary to pursue his destructive political ambitions.”—Christopher Hale, author of Hitler's Foreign Executioners: Europe's Dirty Secret

“Hitler and Film carves out new territory in a densely populated field. Written with a precision and clarity that is the hallmark of Niven’s work, the book sheds significant new light both on Hitler as Nazi ideologue, on the one hand, and film fan on the other. Extraordinary.”—Paul Cooke, author of Contemporary German Cinema

"A fascinating exploration of Hitler the consumer, aficionado, collector, censor, exhibitor, performer, and manipulator of film. Niven offers an eminently readable and meticulously researched history that leaves no doubt about Hitler’s voracious appetite for the movies, and his understanding of the film medium.”—Frances Guerin, author of Through Amateur Eyes: Film and Photography in Nazi Germany

“Niven expertly pieces together Hitler’s complex, multi-faceted relationship to cinema, showing how Hitler – who had a genuine passion for the medium, as well as an acute awareness of its propaganda potential – stood at the very heart of the German film industry.”—Roger Moorhouse, author of The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941