As a curiosity it allows insight into the mind of one of histories most terrifyingly figures. But you are forced to wonder to what extent even this is a performance, after all he was hardly dining with ordinary people.

I would imagine that the table talk of most world leaders today would resemble that portrayed in the book. What is macabre though is the sense of decadence when these conversations are placed in the historical context of the then ensuing war and the murder of millions of civilians casually remarked upon (or not) or pronounced upon in a very detached manner. Hardly a fitting subject for the dinner table.

There have been many murderous dictators and regimes in the last hundred years, I would imagine that conversations like these were conducted around all of their respective dinner tables, combining belligerent justification with showing off. I expect dinner at the White House isn't too different.