I don't know whether this should be posted here or somewhere else. If so, where? Kinda new to this thing.
Recently, I purchased book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler in local bookstore for studying and analysis. What I later found out was that it is written in another language, which while I understand, I would much rather read it in English.
What I would like to find out is which version of the book is best translated, while having least amount of censure. Any review, why it is better than other versions or why should I avoid certain publishers would also help.
Thanks
It depends why you are looking to read it. If you are trying learn the history of Nazism and Hitler, my absolute official recommendation as an historian is that the best translation is none, as Mein Kampf is perhaps the single worst source for that purpose, and there is nothing that would be learned from reading it that you would not be better served with from a biography such as Kershaw's duology, or a general history like Evans' trilogy. This is not a response offered lightly, but one that is quite serious, based off of long study of the topic, and familiarity with the sources., and is likewise echoed by other historians of Nazi Germany here such as /u/commiespaceinvader here. If you are writing a paper and simply need direct primary source quotations, just use the Murphy edition, but for god's sake don't waste your time reading it cover to cover.
Hi there,
On /r/AskHistorians we often get questions along the lines of 'what did Hitler think about X' - I mean, as an April Fools joke one year, we changed the sub to /r/AskAboutHitler. However, for better or worse, many of these questions about what Hitler thought are, in the literal sense, unanswerable. We don't know what Hitler thought about many things, and especially about things that were inconsequential for him. Hitler did not keep a diary, and the collections of his private conversations are disjointed and nowhere near complete, being almost completely dependent on the post-war recollection of his intimates (who may also be unreliable in their recollections, especially given those circumstances).
Of course, you may still get an answer to this particular question! However, broadly speaking, proving the negative is very hard (there could be a 1965 article on the topic in Swahili), and if you've asked a question which is almost certainly "We don't know, and he probably didn't care anyway", few historians familiar with the topic matter actually are going to want to put in the necessary gruntwork, doubly so about a man who on a personal level was decidedly uninteresting.
For more information that will be helpful in understanding the context around your question, please read /u/commiespaceinvader's wonderful post on why Hitler's opinions actually aren't that interesting, and please see here for an example of a historian attempting to find evidence about Hitler's thoughts on a topic, but finding that it is likely unanswerable.