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Cranston and Hitler: An Intersec on of Lives Alan Cranston was born on 19 June 1914 in Palo Alto, California. Nearly 6,000 miles away in that same year, 25-year-old Adolf Hitler began serving in the 16th Bavar- ian Reserve Infantry Regiment of the German army. 1914 also marked the year WWI began. Cranston and Hitler could not have been more different. Their upbringing, temperament, values, and ideology were a study in stark contrasts, yet their lives were destined to intersect. Hitler's childhood and youth were not ideal, sta- ble, or comfortable. He had aspired to be an artist but was rejected by an art school and became nearly desti- tute when he lived in Austria. After his army service, he became politically involved in the overthrow of the German government. Hitler was tried and sentenced for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, but only served nine months of his fi ve-year sentence. It was in Lands- berg prison that he wrote Mein Kampf. He originally named it Four and a Half Years Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice but was persuaded by the publishing company's manager that a shorter title would be more marketable; the result was Mein Kampf (English translation: My Battle). Hitler's manuscript was originally written in two volumes. The fi rst volume (1925) was subtitled Eine Albrechnung (A Reckoning), and the second volume (1927) was Die Nationalissozalistische Bewegung (The Nazi Movement). The volumes were then combined into one book, Mein Kampf. It is perverse irony that the German gov- ernment that he sought to overthrow essentially fi nanced the time, solitude, room, and board for Hitler to write his manifesto, which would become known as The Nazi Bible. It was the blueprint for him to secure supreme power and the rise of the Third Reich for world domination. Mein Kampf became a best seller by 1933, the year Hit- ler became chancellor of Germany. Once nearly destitute, Hitler enjoyed skyrocketing book sales commensurate 18 THE CAPITOL DOME Fig. 3. This photograph of Alan Cranston racing while attending Stanford University (c. 1936) still hangs on the wall of the Cranston family home.