Why people recommend it
Mein Kampf is an autobiographical manifesto written by Adolf Hitler that outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. The book is frequently referenced in podcast discussions concerning historical extremism and modern political rhetoric. On Behind the Bastards, the host discussed reading extensive literature on historical dictators and detailed a historical political rally where Eugene Talmadge was criticized by opponents for boasting about reading Hitler's book multiple times. Douglas Murray mentioned on the Lex Fridman Podcast that copies of the text had been found in households in Gaza as an indicator of radicalization. Other shows, such as Breaking Points and Timcast IRL, referenced the manifesto while debating whether historical figures openly publicized their intentions or discussing contemporary political comparisons and media controversies.
Who recommended it
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 47
“And then once he got power, then he carried then then he and people say, "Well, he wrote Minecom."”
“the numbers of copies of "Mein Kampf" in Arabic in an average Gazan household,”
“Like obviously, Stalin's a foreign leader, but I've been reading about Stalin my whole life. Hitler's a foreign leader—I've read more books about Hitler than anybody who's not a Hitler scholar—but like Jair Bolsonaro?”
“They were saying he has quotes from Mein Kampf on his dresser, and some ex-girlfriend 30 years ago said not only this; the quote about wanting generals was published in 2022.”
“This is one of the most terrifying things that you've heard a presidential candidate say because it is straight out of Mein Kampf.”
“His opponents took turns attacking him, one targeting Jean for boasting that he had read Hitler's book seven times, although he said he was too busy to read any other books.”
“I'm one of the very few people who have read Mein Kampf because that book is not readable seven times.”
“My favorite Mein Kampf joke is in the movie Churchill: The Hollywood Years when Winston Churchill, played by Christian Slater, sees a copy of Mein Kampf by his bed and goes, 'What's this, a gay prison novel?'”
“He embraced this 'minor dictator' refrain, and to conclude from Anderson, 'Jean's early admiration for Hitler, the fact that he had read Hitler's book seven times, and his tendency to surround himself with huge military staffs and nonchalantly call for martial law gave an eerie backing to his words.'”
“I'm writing a book in German about—nope, okay, anyway, here's some ads.”
“Garrison, it's hard not to make a Mein Kampf joke when someone says the word struggle; you know that's my struggle.”
“To try to analyze Hitler's acts or alleged motives in the absence of the ideology that he himself subscribed to and described in hateful detail in 'Mein Kampf' and other manifestos and speeches is an enterprise that's doomed to failure, justifiably.”
“Hitler cited Henry Ford as a inspiration in Mein Kampf, and I think in 1931, a reporter from the Detroit News interviewed Hitler in his office and noted that there was a huge portrait of Henry Ford behind Hitler at his desk.”
“He was also a Holocaust denier; he used to quote Hitler all the time; he said that a Black panther was, uh, Jews trying to take money from Black people... or, think she...”
“So when Donald Trump is out here paraphrasing Mein Kampf and talking about immigrants poisoning the blood of this country, well then you go look at Project 2025, the architect, but also what's in the plan.”
“most of them are pretty well read when it comes to their ideology they've actually read mein kampf”
“This is the guy he co-wrote Mein Kampf with; like Hess and Hitler are like tight before his...His is like his ghostwriter?”
“And here's how he wrote about that moment in Mein Kampf. This takes place, I think, in Austria \u2013 no, sorry, in Vienna.”
“By 1930, she finally read Mein Kampf for the very first time, which introduced Maximan to Hitler's theories about the Aryan race. His ideas about the superior race, consistently undermined by the evil Jews, jelled remarkably well with Maximan's own beliefs about the ancient Greeks and the Jews.”
“There's no idea, there's no—I mean there's no 'Mein Kampf' is not 'Das Kapital', right? 'Mein Kampf' is—like, to the extent I understand it, it's like he's about the Treaty of Versailles.”
“He wrote about it in Mein Kampf, claiming that it was a secret Jewish language used to plot against Germany.”
“And that same year, Stackpole, which was also more of a military publisher, they did a lot of books in military history, they published an unauthorized edition of 'Mein Kampf.' Oh wow, Hitler being...then like it'd be like if Putin had written a book and they felt like people should read it.”
“In fact, after a bad night's gambling, he would calm himself down by reading Mein Kampf.”
“That means a lot of books were banned. You mean your elementary school didn't have 'Mein Kampf'? Well, listen, here's the irony.”
“I think I would rather read 'Mein Kampf' to understand people that hate.”
“Somebody asked me once about what books would be required reading in literature courses, and I listed 'Mein Kampf', and they were horrified.”
“And I said, 'Well, it's one of the most important books of the 20th century.'”
“I mean, six million Jews died; an enormous number of other people died because one guy wrote a book called 'Mein Kampf' and took it seriously.”
“It's one of the most important books ever written; how can an educated person not have at least breezed through 'Mein Kampf'?”
“It's one of the most important books of the 20th century, and it's politically incorrect to read it.”
“It's hard to visualize it in the way I can visualize, like, I've been reading a lot about Hitler; I can visualize meetings between people, military strategy, deciding on certain evil atrocities, all that kind of stuff. I can visualize the people; there's agreements, handshakes, stuff signed, groups built. In the digital space, like with bots, with anonymity, anyone human”
“and uh in prison he wrote his book called Mein Kampf and in the book he wrote like I've I've recently discovered that it is my obligation to lead the German people to Greatness”
“He hated nation states; his whole theory, if you pick up, I don't recommend doing this, but if you do read Mein Kampf, then you'll see that he says explicitly that the goal is for Germany to be the lord of the earth and mistress of the globe.”
“so he has a mineconf He has a type does he have a thing where he's kind of collected works”
“for example i've been recently reading mineconf you know what that's the thing even there's something in there's probably things in mineconf that are not the surface level Read if you get all hung up on on all probably all his crap about uh you know his anger anger at jews and this and that all this crap It's like”
“is google evil because it will sell you mind conf is amazon evil because it will sell you mind conf if you find out that mineconf rests on somebody's bookshelf”
“This is a copy of "Mein Kampf" all in lambskin, given by Hitler himself. And if you see the book plate.”
“but we wondered about uh if you believe hitler's writings for example mein kampf uh which you know is written by a guy who's a political figure who wants to get so i mean it's about as as believable as any other political tract would be”
“He's a joke that he they couldn't find a publisher from mineconf in english because this is a guy from some random minor party in germany spouting nonsense who's going to read this crap”
“but but for me to not read mein kampf is stupid right”
“i don't know because hitler wrote all about it in mineconf”
“uh sorry but the been studying hitler a lot recently and uh going through mineconf he uh pretty much rode out of minecon for everything he was gonna do Unfortunately most leaders including stalin didn't read the read it”
“He talked about studying how the u.s. treated American Indians in his book Mein Kampf”
“Anyways I've actually read one of them and it was an inspiring book with a positive message I can see why some people might not like it or would find it cheesy but it wasn't mine Kampf”
“well mineconf is uh it's pretty good”
“our paper that we wrote Mein Kampf was about”
“like do you think if students were forced to read mine comp like would that be better for you know school kids or something this is like today I was like well I read it every morning but that's a joke”