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AS the new century begins, lawyers engage in courtroom debate about the technicalities of ballots: If it’s partly pushed through, does that mean the candidate wins? This is the kind of history it might not be very exciting to read about, but it’s certainly the kind a reasonable person would prefer to live through.

As if to prove this point, a new publishing company has been founded specializing in the history of that most unsavory of centuries, the just-concluded 20th. The charter of Enigma Books is to make available important works about the totalitarian century, when issues—and egos—were larger than life. Enigma’s first release sets the tone: Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944: His Private Conversations (788 pp., $32), an invaluable resource on one of the century’s most repellent—yet representative—figures. Hitler’s acolyte Martin Bormann had note-takers present at some of the Führer’s relaxed conversations, and as a result we can listen to the unguarded reflections of the dictator when he was at the height of his power.

About the Author

Michael Potemra

Michael Potemra was a literary editor for National Review.

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AS the new century begins, lawyers engage in courtroom debate about the technicalities of ballots: If it’s partly pushed through, does that mean the candidate wins? This is the kind of history it might not be very exciting to read about, but it’s certainly the kind a reasonable person would prefer to live through.

As if to prove this point, a new publishing company has been founded specializing in the history of that most unsavory of centuries, the just-concluded 20th. The charter of Enigma Books is to make available important works about the totalitarian century, when issues—and egos—were larger than life. Enigma’s first release sets the tone: Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944: His Private Conversations (788 pp., $32), an invaluable resource on one of the century’s most repellent—yet representative—figures. Hitler’s acolyte Martin Bormann had note-takers present at some of the Führer’s relaxed conversations, and as a result we can listen to the unguarded reflections of the dictator when he was at the height of his power.