Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-304) and index.

The unfathomable ascent -- Discovering the mission -- The charmed circle -- The mounting pressure -- A hot autumn -- The Putsch -- Hitting bottom -- A trial for treason -- The judgment of history -- Rearranging the world -- The boss -- The Holy Book -- A second chance -- Starting over.

Adolf Hitler spent 1924 away from society and surrounded by co-conspirators of the failed Beer Hall Putsch. Behind bars in a prison near Munich, Hitler passed the year with deep reading and intensive writing, a year of slowly walking gravel paths while working feverishly on his book Mein Kampf. This was the year of Hitler's final transformation into the self-proclaimed savior and infallible leader who would appropriate Germany's historical traditions and bring them into his vision for the Third Reich.