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Summary: No Doubt the best Work on Nazi Germany
Review: The information that is unveiled in book is unbelievable. The hours of college work and classes dealing with Nazi Germany doesn't hold a candle to the information that is in Shirer's book. The Background information shows how easily Hitler could rise to power. From the formation of the Republic to the rise of the Nazi Party to total domination by Hitler to the Fall of Hitler, Shirer describes each event with passion and factual information. He, without a doubt, has done the best and in my opinion the only work on Nazi Germany
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Summary: A Must WWII Read!
Review: Let me tell you firstly, this book was a summer assignment for me to get into AP History at my school. I picked this book for I was looking for a World War II novel to read. I was not prepared for what I was about to read. This book is filled to the brim with facts and good facts they are. Shirer makes this book flow with easy and grace, which I would not think possible. This book takes you through the whole war(from the German view) and before and after. I found the infomation on Hitler's rise to be quite interesting. From the streets of Vienna to the Beer Hall to the Chancellory and so on. Very interesting and good read. I must now say that I may read this again in the future, but is ain't going to be for any class, just enjoyment of history!
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Summary: Indispensible reading
Review: An encyclopedic yet immensely readable account of the spectacular rise to power of Adolf Hitler & the German Nazi party & their subsequent downfall.Shirer's account has the freshness & verve that only the best journalism can provide .He traces the rise of fascism in post WW-1 Germany against the backdrop of the latent authoritarianism inherent in the Teutonic makeup____Fichte,Hegal,Wagner & Neitzshe____which in turn may have its roots in the Reformation of Martin Luther.Hitler's rise from a penniless,homeless vagrant in fin-de-siecle Vienna to his stint as a low level soldier in WW-1 is ably narrated .The birth of the Nazi party in the early 1920's ,the Munich beer hall putsch and the undeniable role of the great depression(& the ensuing inflation/unemployment) in catapulting Hitler to power is mentioned in detail . Shirer goes to great depths in describing the advance of the German armies through much of the Europe starting with the reoccupation of Alsace-Lorraine ,the Anschluss with Austria ,the "pact of steel" with fascist Italy and the spineless appeasement of Neville Chamberlain .The invasion of Russia ("operation Barbarossa") and the subsequent seige of Stalingrad are told in rivetting detail .The last third of the book deals with the turning of the tide in the war and the entry of America .Reading this book I couldn't help noticing that the greatest politicians make the biggest mistakes ( no matter what other sins may be laid at Hitler's door, no one would deny that his political skills were of the first order)____one wonders about the eventual outcome of WW-II would had Hitler not dissipated his strength on two fronts [Britain & Russia] .He had obviously the British & the French on the run_____ instead of needlesslessly opening the 2nd front against Russia___had he gone on pounding Britain the odds are the swastika would still be fluttering over the Buckingham palace!This is a long book(1100+ pages) but hard to put down once you get going.
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Summary: Accept no substitutes, this is THE definitive history
Review: With all of the two bit books around today that try to attract readers with wild theories or incorrect information about the Nazis, this book should and does stand as the gold standard by which all the others are measured, and all fall short of. And with good reason. No other book on the Third Reich covers the entire life of Nazism, from the early life and infulences of Aldof Hitler to Goetterdaemmerung in the Berlin bunker to a brief review of Nuremburg and none with such detail. Shirer intended to make his book the only one with all the details of the years of Hitler. He not only covers those years but does so with the massive detail that only he, who covered the Nazis in Berlin from 1925-1941 and also poured over the 400+ tons of German documents for five years while writting his book, could. From the years of 1925-45, Shirer uses both these sources to cover every relavent detail of the period. Shirer tells the story of the Nazis very professionally. While he derides many deserving Nazi leaders, loosing his true jounalistic objectiveness, he presents all the facts without speculating about why the Germans let Hitler take over or offering any other crazy theories. This lets the reader go through the history making his own conclusions instead of interpreting some quack's thoughts on Hitler. The only slight fault of this book is that Shirer depicts Berliners and other Germans as good natured people who were taken advantage of by Hitler and who wanted no part in WWII. Though this is most likely true for some Germans, others, if not most, agreed with Hitler. Shirer probalbly befrended many Berliners during his time there and was hesitant to goup them with Hitler. This minor flaw is not nearly enough to drop this book from a perfect score. If you want a definative, no questions at the end, every last detail history of the Third Reich (as every history enthusiast should) look no further.
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Summary: The definitive account of Nazi Germany
Review: William L. Shirer's classic "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" is the most complete single volume account of the history of Nazi Germany ever written. Shirer was a journalist, not a historian and the advantages of this show in his very readable prose and his vivid descriptions (for example, often referring to Herman Goering as "the fat Field Marshall"). The book starts with the birth of the Nazi party and how it found a spokesman early on in an ex-serviceman named Adolf Hitler. The narrative continues through until the end of the war, Hitler's suicide and the final few days under Admiral Doenitz. The only warning to the casual reader is that the book's length exceeds 1100 pages and it is crammed to the brim with facts. Also, it should be noted that the book was published over forty years ago and does not include more recent information that has come to light from, for example, the former East German archives. Nevertheless, this is still a classic work of jornalistic history.
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Summary: Chilling
Review: One of the most important books of the 20th Century. This book documents each baby step towards totalitarianism. Just at the Black Book of Communism illustrated Marx's Communist Manifesto, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich documents fascism in action. This book is a chilling read. I could not finish the chapter about the human experimentation that was conducted in concentration camps. This book shows in vivid detail the dangers of concentrating all governmental power into the hands of a single man. No single man is more worthy of the hell he now resides in than Adolf Hitler.
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Summary: Truly excellent.
Review: I have to admit that this book is probably the best (and most truthful) book I've read on World War 2. Even though I like the World War 2 parts, the thing that interested me the most was Hitler's rise to complete power. Anyone who wants to read about World War 2 must read this book.
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Summary: Fully deserving of its classic status
Review: Although contemporary histories may have revised the story first told here, few have ever told it better than Shirer, who was a correspondent in Nazi Germany until 1941. The writing is tremendous and the narrative flows very smoothly. The only element of the book that has not aged well is Shirer's credulous acceptance of some of Hitler's farfetched "table-talk" strategizing, which were not so much his plans for world conquest as running off at the mouth.
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Summary: Excellent book
Review: I usually have little patience with tomes this voluminous. However, this book was an extremely interesting read. I finished it in less than a week. Although extremely informative, sections of this book are clouded by Shirer's personal opinions. He dismisses several top Nazis as buffoons which seems somewhat unbelievable.
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Summary: Definitive narrative on the 3rd Reich
Review: This colosus of a book will tell you most of what you need to know about the 3rd Reich's inner workings. I say most in that this book focuses on the top dogs in Nazi Germany - for example Eichmann is only mentioned a couple of time, as is Mengele. In addition, not all the facts had come to light when the book was written, a fact that Shirer readily admits. However, the advantage of having this book written so soon after the facts means that many of the participants (those that weren't executed after the Nurnberg trials) were still alive and knew the author personally (or at least by reputation) due to his coverage of German affairs for the US media. He used this contact on several occasions to flesh out the official documents. Because of the fact that the author was a correspondent, the "Rise" part of the Nazi party is a far more personal and interesting read. It is liberally sprinkled with personal observations and commentary. After the American journalists were expelled from Germany, the book is not quite as interesting, but still a page turner. The highlights for me were the comparative critisisms, e.g. comparing Guderian's claims (in his autobiography) with the information taken from OKW or other people's diaries. A lot of the Axis leaders tried to downplay their roles in books after the war (another prime example is Speer); the book points out the lies and half-truths. In addition to the value of the book for giving a full and coherent picture of the workings of the Third Reich, I've found it to be an invaluable reference tool. I come back to this book again and again to look up information when reading other history books, when something pertaining to the era is mentioned in the media, etc. It is well indexed and sources are explicitly defined. Essential for the armchair historian as well as those more professional ones.
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