While most readers of Burkes “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s Battles”, have said this is a terrible piece attempting to explain the life of a cruel man, a close and carful reading shows that there is a lot we can learn by looking at things from a different perspective. When we look at “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s Battle”, we can see how Hitler came to be such a merciless dictator, which is important because it ultimately tells us why things were as they were. 

Burkes piece not only displayed an alternative view point with creative language and information, but his organization allowed for me to go back and analyze the piece with ease. Burke did a great job of giving the readers Hitler’s background, and then delving into the Hitler’s perspectives and creativity in manipulating and crafting his movement. 

Social norms are an all to common thing, they have a powerful grasp over groups of people and can drive them into doing things, that may have been once thought of as irrational. I use this to make two points, the first referring to Hitler and his . 

As we have all learned, Hitler is a cruel and bitter man that unleashed mass genocide on millions of people, most famously the Jews. Although in school we learn the major battles and dates, the only real understanding and perspective gained, is that Hitler is sadistic killer and the Nazi’s are bad. Understandingly so we learn the history through the point of view of the allied powers. It wasn’t until reading Burkes piece that I gained an insight into a different perspective. Not a “Pro Nazi perspective” but one that embodies the ideas of Hitler, and the why. Burke spoke of Hitler’s past, and how he came to be. Learning of Hitler’s time in Vienna, and how he came to develop such a strong hatred to democracy and capitalism made sense of how a man could develop such cruel behavior and ideas. Burke infused this piece with words of Hitler and Mein Kampf. These quotes and ideas allows for the reader to have a look inside Hitler’s mind, to lend some perspective on how one person could come to developed the hatred that they did.  

Not only did I learn how these ideas came to be from the perspective of Hitler, but Burke wrote to how the ideas were accepted by the people. Not to call Hitler a genius, but the man was able to pull of one of the most destructive and evil movements history has ever seen, and never did I understand why. Burke was able to take a step back and explain how. Hitler took the broken people of Germany, and gave them a medicine, or scapegoat as Burke often uses. He slowly turned the ideas of a people, developing this social norm and idea that capitalism and democracy is bad. He pinned the “economic problems onto non economic reasons” the shattered German economy lay the grounds to allow this event to happen. Hitler was able to build off that, turning the minds of the people away from the economy and onto the non Aryan, or the Jew. Over time he slowly built up not just a blame of the non Aryan but a hatred. When the hatred of the people was already built, channeling the hate on the Jew seemed almost easy for Hitler. Burke spoke of the “Medical” appeal of scapegoating the Jew. He gave the people an outlet that they could all come together against a common enemy and channeled all there hate and problems onto. In Hitler’s own works, he wrote a formula that allowed his ideas to thrive. Burke raises the question of whether these ideas were a calculated act. A valid question after seeing the amount of time and planning Hitler put into his movement, also one that was never brought up in the text books in history class. As the social norm of scapegoating the Jew grew over the years, the violence only increased. Hitler carefully built up this anti-sematic presence as the years went on. It become more and more normal to hate the “common enemy” it was easier for Hitler to turn up the dial on violence, with mass killings and mobilizations of his armies. 

The second social norm that Burke indirectly exposes in the one that occurs in todays educational systems. As I said, learning the “Facts” in history I was never able to truly understand the anti-sematic movement. I understood the significant events, but was never able to learn of the perspectives, other then the simple “Hitler is evil” perspective. It is not until reading burkes piece that I realized an entirely new window into the events that occurred. Under no circumstance does the knowledge of Hitler’s background justify the means of what he did, but it does help to make sense of everything. The issue is students learn by the textbook. There is little to no room to learn alternative perspectives. I think this is partially what Burke is doing. He is giving insight into the other side, which is something that most don’t. By seeing through the other side, there is so much more one can learn. 

Through Burkes unique perspective it allows the readers to see, and learn about an entirely new side to the events of Hitler’s movement. The social movement created by Hitler allows for a society to be blinded and do unthinkable things. This parallels the way we are taught about things throughout school, blinded by the social norm that is given to us. Reading deeply into pieces such as this can expose a lot of thought, and perspective that isn’t originally available at a first glance.