Contemporary Criticisms
Mein Kampf, due to its racist content and the historical effect of Nazism upon Europe during World War II and the Holocaust, is considered a highly controversial book. Criticism has not come solely from opponents of Nazism. Italian Fascist dictator and Nazi ally, Benito Mussolini, was also critical of the book, saying that it was "a boring tome that I have never been able to read" and remarked that Hitler's beliefs, as expressed in the book, were "little more than commonplace clichés."
One direct opponent of National Socialism, Konrad Heiden, observed that the content of Mein Kampf is essentially a political argument with other members of the Nazi Party who had appeared to be Hitler's friends, but whom he was actually denouncing in the book's content — sometimes by not even including references to them.
In The Second World War, Winston Churchill wrote that he felt that after Hitler's ascension to power, no other book deserved more intensive scrutiny.
The American literary theorist and philosopher Kenneth Burke wrote a rhetorical analysis of the work, The Rhetoric of Hitler's "Battle", which revealed its underlying message of aggressive intent.
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