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From the NY Times’ 1983 review:

“There are 20 closely-packed chapters in the book, and I must content myself with a modest selection to convey its riches. The chapter titled ‘’Waiting for Hitler’’ is a perceptive and knowledgeable account of the Weimar Republic and the constantly escalating tensions between the traditionalists and the modernists in it. Moreover, as Mr. Johnson writes, by the end of the 20’s, ‘’the syphilis of anti-Semitism had reached its tertiary stage.’’ Hitler’s appeal, especially among youth in the universities, lay in his being the ‘’romantic’’ type of leader which Johnson distinguishes from the ‘’religious’’ type personified by Lenin. Lenin was essentially a rigorous and puritanical thinker whose appeal for revolutionary change had a kind of religious fervor. Hitler’s approach was artistic: He conjured up visions for the Germans, right down to architectural details, of what the Third Reich might look like rather than what its political principles would be. ‘’Hitler’s artistic approach was absolutely central to his success. Lenin’s religious type of fanaticism would never have worked in Germany,’’ Mr. Johnson writes.”