Henk de Berg has just published Trump and Hitler: A Comparative Study in Lying (Palgrave Macmillan). The book compares Trump and Hitler as political performance artists. For fear of glorifying the two men -- de Berg argues -- we prefer to see them as crazy rather than cunning, short-fused rather than strategic. In doing so, we fatally underestimate their skill set.
The comparison works in both directions: analysing Hitler helps us get a better sense of why Trump has been so successful; and looking at Trump helps us gain a better insight into how Hitler managed to manipulate the German people.
Warning
The book explores their populist self-staging and rhetorical strategies and explains how they connected with their respective audiences. It analyses the two men’s character, work ethic, and management style. In addition, it addresses seemingly peripheral issues like the reasons behind Hitler’s toothbrush moustache and Trump’s hairstyle.
By exploring the death of German democracy in the 1930s and the dangers of illiberal democracy today, the book warns against the lure of populism and ethnonationalism across the ages.
