Why Hitler Came into Power

In 1934 Abel went to Germany and offered a prize, under the auspices of Columbia University, for autobiographies of members of the National Socialist movement. The 600 essays he received constitute the best source on grassroots opinion in the Nazi Party, and they form the empirical foundation for this fascinating yet curiously neglected 1938 book.

“The book’s main purpose is to measure, in the light of the author’s unique personal data, the relative importance of each of the main factors to which [Hitler’s] rise to power has hitherto been ascribed, including Hitler’s own leadership, the strategy of the party tacticians, and the favorable circumstances of popular discontent. The results are highly important... There can...be no doubt that the book makes one of the most original contributions to an understanding of Nazism which has yet been written.”―Arnold J. Zurcher, American Political Science Review

“Extremely interesting and significant.”―Clifford Kirkpatrick, American Sociological Review

“One year after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor, Theodore Abel, a Columbia University sociologist, went to Germany and offered small cash prizes for political autobiographies by Nazi party members. With the cooperation of the government, he was able to collect about seven hundred essays... It was on the basis of an analysis of these documents that Why Hitler Came into Power was written. Now, half a century later, this book is still very much worth reading. More than a testimony to the excellence of some of the early efforts at describing the Nazi phenomenon...Abel’s study is at the heart of the current debates on fascism, national socialism, and the coming of Hitler to power.”―David B. King, German Studies Review