Conspiracy theories have grown more popular and pervasive, powered both by the rising power of the Internet and social media and by the declining influence of traditional gatekeepers of information. In his new book, Richard Evans, one of the world's leading historians of the Third Reich, explores this new golden age of conspiracy theories and what fuels it. Evans focuses on five of the most enduring theories, all of them involving the Nazi period, including those that accompanied and even buttressed Hitler's rise in the first place. Hence he reexamines the notorious anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; the "stab-in-the-back" myth about the of the role of Jews in Germany's loss in World War One; and the burning of the Reichstag, which generated conflicting conspiracy theories by Communists and Nazis, who certainly used it to solidify their grip on power. Evans also examines the multiple rumors regarding the ill-fated 1941 flight to England by Rudolf Hess, Deputy Leader of the Nazi party, and his death in Spandau prison in 1987. Lastly, he explores the durable rumor that Hitler managed to escape from Berlin in 1945 and lived out his days in Argentina.
The Hitler Conspiracies is a book about fantasies and fictions, fabrications and falsifications. A distinguished work of history, it offers equally a hard look at our own troubled times, a "post-truth" era in which "alternative facts" have gained new standing.
Sir Richard Evans was Regius Professor of History at Cambridge University and, until his retirement, President of Wolfson College. He is Provost of Gresham College in London, and was knighted for his service to scholarship in 2012.