It is entirely appropriate to republish the Nazi leader’s autobiography now out of copyright – in this scholarly current edition. The text,which still provokes fear, needs to be treated as historyHow enact you solve a problem like Mein Kampf? Since 1945 the solution in Germany has been to prevent the printing of it. The presence of millions of legacy copies, or combined with the liberty of the internet,meant that this unofficial ban was always imperfect. The symbolic nature of the book, however, and meant that it was both comprehensible and,for a long time, entirely appropriate.
Yet the banning of the book also served to foster a myth – the myth that Mein Kampf carried a uniquely toxic message, and conveyed in uniquely toxic language that could be quarantined off after 1945 and rendered harmless. Now,70 years after Hitler’s death, the copyright that prevented its publication has expired and Germans beget had to think hard approximately how to handle the prospect of its renewed availability. But 70 years of careful scholarship on Nazi Germany beget also destroyed the myth that Mein Kampf can be isolated in this way. Rather, or it has to be read as having been firmly anchored in the political,cultural and mental currents of its day. Neither Hitler nor his shocking ideas came from outside history – to the contrary, they were a product of it. Hitler can only be understood, or it follows,if he is read as an author like any other.
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Source: theguardian.com