This highly personal memoir by one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates during the Nazi rise to power delves into the mind and character of the man responsible for more death and destruction than any person in history.

Of American and German parentage, Ernst Hanfstaengl graduated from Harvard and ran the family business in New York for a dozen years before returning to Germany in 1921. By chance he heard a then little-known Adolf Hitler speaking in a Munich beer hall and, mesmerized by his extraordinary oratorical power, was convinced the man would some day come to power. Hanfstaengl befriended Hitler and welcomed him into his home, seeing himself as a civilizing influence on the volatile politician; and for a time, he was. As Hitler's fanatical theories and ideas hardened, however, he surrounded himself with rabid extremists like Goering, Hess, and Goebbels, and Hanfstaengl became estranged from him. But with the Nazi's major, unexpected political triumph in 1930, Hitler became a national figure, and he invited Hanfstaengl to be his foreign press secretary. It is from this unique insider's position that the author provides a vivid, intimate view of Hitler--with his neuroses, repressions, and growing megalomania--over the next several years.

In 1937, four years after Hitler came to power, relations between Hanfstaengl and the Nazis had deteriorated to such a degree that he was forced to flee for his life, escaping to Switzerland. For months Hitler tried to entice him back, to no avail, and as soon as Hanfstaengl succeeded in getting his son, Egon, out of the country, he emigrated to England. He spent most of World War II in Washington, where, under the code name S-Project, he advised the American government on the character and inner workings of the Nazi regime.