Dr. Ryan Skinnell

Deliver Us to Evil: hitler’s rhetoric and the global ascendance of nazism [in progress]

By Ryan Skinnell

Deliver Us to Evil: Hitler’s Rhetoric & the Global Ascendance of Nazism is a story about how a vulgar, demagogic rabble-rouser once destroyed a democracy with the power of rhetoric. It is the story of a man who came from little, descended to nothing, and clawed his way to unprecedented power primarily on his ability to speak. It is a story about how he and his followers used well-worn persuasive practices to bend speech, writing, and symbols to new and tragic ends. It’s a story about how he learned rhetoric through trial, error, and deliberate effort. It is a story of how he recruited his most fervent followers and persuaded millions of others to his cause. And it is a warning that if we don’t learn history’s rhetorical lessons, it can happen again.

Scholars, journalists, theologians, eye-witnesses, and others have acknowledged for more than a century that Hitler’s success depended largely on what he called in Mein Kampf, “the magic power of the spoken word.” With few exceptions, however, even the most insightful analysts and observers have not managed to explain how Hitler’s rhetoric actually worked, preferring to describe him as an oratorical magician. But the belief in Hitler’s magic is little more than Nazi propaganda. Deliver Us to Evil argues that Hitler’s persuasive practices were neither simple nor unique nor magical—they were rhetorical.

For more, visit https://hitlersrhetoric.com/