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. 

Although in school we learn the major battles and dates, the only real understanding and perspective gained, is that Hitler was a sadistic killer and the Nazis 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. 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 their hate and problems onto. In Hitler’s own works, he wrote a formula that Hitler used to allow his ideas to thrive. “1. Inborn Dignity in both religious and humanistic patters of thought.”, 2. Projection device. This is the piece of Hitler’s “Formula” that I spoke of earlier in which he channeled the hate of his followers into scapegoating the Jew. 3.Symbolic rebirth, Hitler made his followers believe that this was a reborn period and that the bad times were over because they found the problem (the jews). Lastly, 4. Commercial use, selling his ideas and getting his subject to really buy into the ideals of scapegoating the Jews. 

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, he put his formula to work and unfortunately it did work. 

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. Burke did something that I hadn’t come across before, he was able to humanize Hitler, which is something hard to do considering all the pain that he brought to this world. 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. Having the ability to look at an event, historical or even modern day, from multiple different points of view can help shed light on a lot of information and insight that one may not have if they don’t look at the situation differently. 

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.

