Editing Mein Kampf (section)

==Contemporary observations==
{{lang|de|Mein Kampf}}, in essence, lays out the ideological program Hitler established for the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]], by identifying the Jews and "Bolsheviks" as racially and ideologically inferior and threatening, and "Aryans" and National Socialists as racially superior and politically progressive. Hitler's revolutionary goals included expulsion of the Jews, and the unification of German peoples into one [[Pan-Germanism|Greater Germany]]. Hitler desired to restore German lands to their greatest historical extent, real or imagined.

Due to its [[Racism|racist]] content and the historical effect of Nazism upon Europe during [[World War II]] and the Holocaust, it is considered a highly controversial book. Criticism has not come solely from opponents of Nazism. [[Italian fascism|Italian fascist]] dictator and Nazi ally [[Benito Mussolini]] was also critical of the book, saying that it was "a boring [[wikt:tome|tome]] that I have never been able to read" and remarking that Hitler's beliefs, as expressed in the book, were "little more than commonplace clichés".<ref>[[Denis Mack Smith|Mack Smith, Denis]]. 1983. ''Mussolini: A Biography''. New York: Vintage Books. p. 172. London: Paladin, p. 200</ref> The American literary theorist and philosopher [[Kenneth Burke]] wrote a 1939 analysis of the work, ''[[The Rhetoric of Hitler's "Battle"]]'', pointing out an underlying message of aggressive intent.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uregina.ca/~rheaults/rhetor/2004/schmidt.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111125085622/http://uregina.ca/~rheaults/rhetor/2004/schmidt.pdf|title=Uregina.ca|archivedate=25 November 2011}}</ref>

The American journalist [[John Gunther]] said in 1940 that compared to autobiographies such as [[Leon Trotsky]]'s ''[[My Life (Trotsky)|My Life]]'' or [[Henry Adams]]'s ''[[The Education of Henry Adams]]'', {{lang|de|Mein Kampf}} was "vapid, vain, rhetorical, diffuse, prolix." However, he added that "it is a powerful and moving book, the product of great passionate feeling". He suggested that the book exhausted curious German readers, "but with its message, if only by ceaseless repetition of the argument, left impregnably in their minds, fecund and germinating".<ref name="gunther1940">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n53/mode/2up | title=Inside Europe | publisher=Harper & Brothers |location=New York| author=Gunther, John |author-link=John Gunther| year=1940 | page=31}}</ref>

In March 1940, British writer [[George Orwell]] reviewed a then-recently published uncensored translation of {{lang|de|Mein Kampf}} for ''[[The New English Weekly]]''. Orwell suggested that the force of Hitler's personality shone through the often "clumsy" writing, capturing the magnetic allure of Hitler for many Germans. In essence, Orwell notes, Hitler offers only visions of endless struggle and conflict in the creation of "a horrible brainless empire" that "stretch[es] to Afghanistan or thereabouts". He wrote, "Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people 'I offer you a good time,' Hitler has said to them, 'I offer you struggle, danger, and death,' and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet." Orwell's review was written in the aftermath of the 1939 [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], when Hitler made peace with the USSR after more than a decade of vitriolic rhetoric and threats between the two nations; with the pact in place, Orwell believed, England was now facing a risk of Nazi attack, and the UK must not underestimate the appeal of Hitler's ideas.<ref>Orwell, George. "Mein Kampf" review, reprinted in ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell'', Vol 2., Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus, eds., Harourt Brace Jovanovich 1968</ref>

In his 1943 book ''The Menace of the Herd'', Austrian scholar [[Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn]]<ref>Francis Stuart Campbell, pen name of [[Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn]] (1943), ''Menace of the Herd, or, Procrustes at Large'', Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Company</ref> described Hitler's ideas in {{lang|de|Mein Kampf}} and elsewhere as "a veritable {{lang|la|[[reductio ad absurdum]]}} of '[[Progressivism|progressive]] thought'"<ref>Kuehnelt-Leddihn, p. 159</ref> and betraying "a curious lack of original thought" that shows Hitler offered no innovative or original ideas but was merely "a ''virtuoso'' of commonplaces which he may or may not repeat in the guise of a 'new discovery.{{'"}}<ref>Kuehnelt-Leddihn, p. 201</ref> Hitler's stated aim, Kuehnelt-Leddihn writes, is to quash individualism in furtherance of political goals:

{{blockquote|When Hitler and Mussolini attack the "western democracies" they insinuate that their "democracy" is not genuine. National Socialism envisages abolishing the difference in wealth, education, intellect, taste, philosophy, and habits by a leveling process which necessitates in turn a total control over the child and the adolescent. Every personal attitude will be branded&nbsp;— after communist pattern&nbsp;— as "[[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]]", and this in spite of the fact that the bourgeois is the representative of the most herdist class in the world, and that National Socialism is a basically bourgeois movement.

In {{lang|de|Mein Kampf}}, Hitler repeatedly speaks of the "masses" and the "herd" referring to the people. The German people should probably, in his view, remain a mass of identical "individuals" in an enormous sand heap or ant heap, identical even to the color of their shirts, the garment nearest to the body.<ref>Kuehnelt-Leddihn, pp. 202–203</ref>}}

In his ''[[The Second World War (book series)|The Second World War]]'', published in several volumes in the late 1940s and early 1950s, [[Winston Churchill]] wrote that he felt that after Hitler's ascension to power, no other book than {{lang|de|Mein Kampf}} deserved more intensive scrutiny.<ref name="ChurchillTheSecondWorldWar">''Winston Churchill: The Second World War''. Volume 1, Houghton Mifflin Books 1986, S. 50. "Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message."</ref>