Highly intelligent, broadly cultivated, amazingly hard-working, artistic, decent and personally heroic as he was, the author of 'Main Kampf' took up an extreme position in public life, from which he gave no quarter; and his memory received none.
Ever since Britain found herself the "bottle-washer" on the winning side in 1945, people with public images to protect have felt forced to ritualise disgust when Mein Kampf is mentioned. Those open the above-named edition first meet with a half-page note from the publishers, then with a note of three and a half pages by the translator, then with a 32-page introduction from D.C. Watt. All of these were written with the main aim of 'disinfecting' the writers. There are NO such precautions in use here.
We still live with the consequences of having ignored what Adolf Hitler wrote so long ago, before he came to power and while serving a term in prison. The birth of his book was in 1924-1926.
The history of the book, according to the 1969 edition of it is as follows:
The first volume of it published by Eher Verlag under Max Amann, 19/07/1925.
The second volume by the same publisher, dated 11/12/1926.
A new edition, revised by Hitler, both volumes in one binding, again by Eher Verlag in 1930.
There were translations into several languages, though NOT into English, from 1928 (Japanese) onward to 1944. An abridgment into English, with significant omissions, was published in the 1930's. First completed English version was published in USA in 1938. Two more, the same, early 1939. The first complete UK edition was in 1939. The second complete UK editions, the one on which my digest is based, was published in 1969.It is stated that all editions previously to this remained unavailable in the UK between 1944 and 1969.
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