Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich

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Summary: Good history for WWII buffs
Review: If you are looking for a sequential history of Nazi Germany, this is a great book. The style is clear and concise and the subject matter is thourogh. It starts with Hitler's childhhood, continues with an in depth discussion of the major events of WWII, and ends with Hitler's death. The book centers around Hitler, but of course he was the Third Reich. It's not perfect - the author is heavily biased. Of course the Nazi's were a bad bunch of guys, but all the German's in WWII were not idiots - they almost conquered Europe after all. I like my History without the author's personal opinions, but all in all I recommend this book to anyone interested in Nazi Germany or WWII.

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Summary: OUTSTANDING!!
Review: Don't let the size of this book deter you from reading what is truly a masterpiece. William Shirer's look at one of history's most ruthless regimes is nothing short of outstanding. It is a well-written and utterly absorbing account of Hitler's rise to power, his reign of the Third Reich, and his subsequent fall. Shirer's painstaking and extensive research, coupled with his clear writing, provides the reader with a terrifying account of the horrors of Hitler's reign of terror. It is truly amazing to me that one man could mesmerize a country and lead them into a war they did not want and felt they could not win. The only drawback to the book is this: I am admittedly weak in geography and would liked to have seen a few maps of pre-War and post-War Europe throughout the text. In addition, maps of troop movements and campaigns during the War may have provided a clearer picture of the expanse of the German Empire at its height; however, the lack of maps certainly did not detract from the written work. Overall, a truly exceptional book that should be read by anyone who is interested in German/European history, WWII, or Adolf Hitler.

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Summary: Good To read but graphic details are too gory!
Review: The book i rate it as three stars because, the details are too graphic and it made me vitually impossible to proceed beyond the next half of the book!...any sensible human does not have patience to enjoy one brutality after another..the author dramatized the events and in the later half was devoted to the brutalities of nazi's in the concentration camps. Instead of that if attention was devoted to the other associated events..this book would have been more readable!..any way good book untill middil..

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Summary: Anywhere it falls open you'll keep reading, fascinated
Review: A completely absorbing study of the characters and events that shaped the Third Reich. Together with the "World At War" video documentary series, this is the most accessible way to study WWII. Perhaps it's only minor weakness is that he didn't have access to all the extra information on technological developments that we do now. He correctly identifies radar as key in the Battle of Britain, but couldn't know how crucial the Enigma codebreakers at Bletchley Park were to the Battles of the Atlantic, North Africa or D-Day. But as a study of the people at the heart of the Reich, it's superb.

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Summary: unquestionably the best book I have ever read
Review: This book is both a classic and as grippingly readable as anythriller, though unfortunately not a work of fiction. I first readit when I was a teenager and have re-read it several times since then, my enjoyment actually increasing with every new read. One problem with this particular edition is that the binding quickly comes apart. The new epilogue (written just after the Berlin wall fell) is a must-read though. I love this book.

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Summary: The Definitive Antidote for Holocaust Deniers!
Review: In the nearly four decades that has passed since the first printing of this book, nobody has written a better researched, more accurate volume on Nazi Germany than William L. Shirer. He holds our hand throughout the book, showing us how Hitler "rationally" developed his warped and horrific political philosophy. He allows the story of Nazi atrocities to be told by the Nazis themselves...through chilling memos and the almost fanatical documenting of orders that even the most tedious bureaucrat participated in.

Holocaust deniers often claim that the allies exaggerated the effort Nazi Germany undertook to exterminate Jews, Slavs and other "undesirables". Shirer's book shows that the Allies didn't need to...the Nazis documented it for themselves. Current volumes on Nazi Germany try to re-write history based on faulty memories and "mysterious new evidence" that comes out of now ultra-capitalist Russia. Most of them are either a money grab, or written for some insidious ulterior motive. None of them capture the authenticity and the horror of this champion of histories.

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Summary: You cannot understand todays world events without this book.
Review: My parents bought this book when it first came out, about 1960, and I struggled to read it cover to cover and eventually finished it. I was eight years old. This may seem amazing to some of the high school students who have reviewed this book as "boring", but it amazed and frightened me. What kept me reading was the vividly portrayed methodical and unfolding horror in Europe that I had known nothing about (what eight year old does?) I'm sure that I missed a lot on my first reading, but I remember that first reading vividly even today. The reason this book is a "must read" is that today's tyrants, today's wars and today's massacres follow much the same script. I believe that most tyrants are often also fanatic students of history for "how to" guides to achieving their aims. Those they would enslave should be equally diligent. The book is sometimes disparaged for its long quotes of previously secret Nazi letters, memoranda and cables, but it is precisely that detail that stays with you for life. You will never read a bland government white paper again without scanning it for the incredible couched in passive, obfuscatory language.

I have read a great deal more history since then, and have read many books on military tactics and strategy from ancient times to the present, but I have never read a better portrait of a world gone crazy. Military strategists can only tell you how. This book tells you why by someone who was there when it happened.

Obviously there have been further revelations since this book was published in 1960 based on declassified and more recently translated documents, but this book stands the test of time in that such revelations supplement but do not undermine its veracity.

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Summary: Brilliant journalism. Cold, shocking information.
Review: Bill Stevenson's critique of this book on Amazon should be ignored. We should remain grateful that one man dedicated so much to write this book. 485 tons of paper he shuffled through. Bill, I'd like to see you do that! Sure the book is written in a cold, sometimes clumsy manner - but the effect is chilling. As a 35 year old I now understand the madness of the German regime and Hitler. The crucial memos and communications have been preserved forever in this book. I felt the holocaust was dealt with in enough detail considering the hugely wide brief the author allowed himself. There are plenty of books on this issue Bill, and I personally didn't feel Shirer was skimming over the most sickening tragedy one can imagine. I have been surprised since reading this book to discover just how many other people have read it. I gave it four stars - with the only fault the 1959 broadsheet writing style. However it is an extremely valuable piece of journalism and the ultimate condemnation of Nazism.

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Summary: This book is highly over rated.
Review: Shirer's book has enjoyed a wide popularity and as the other reviews in this section attest, it continues to find an enthusiastic audience. As a well documented eye witness account, it has merit. As a serious attempt at providing a useful history of the Third Reich it has many flaws. The book is poorly written notwithstanding comments to the contrary. It is full of incorrect grammar not least of which is an eccentric misuse of puncutation that persistently obfuscates the author's meaning. Shirer is overly concerned with pendantic details related to translation issues, which have no usefulness to the general reader. The book lacks balance. The event of paramount significance for the Nazis was, of course, the holocaust. Shirer deals with the holocaust in a scant few pages, while following that with a long discourse on the failed attempt to kill Hitler in July 1944. On balance the holocaust far outweighs the significance of the failed and futile effort to rid the world of Hitler through assassination, which would simply have made him a martyr to his followers. Shirer's view of the Nazi leaders is quite clouded. Perhaps this is an unfair crticism for someone who lived in Germany and saw it first hand, but his antipathy really clouds his judgement. His disparagement of the capabilities of Joseph Goerbels, for example, are laughable. For any history to have usefulness, it must appeal to it's intended audience. On that level, The Rise and Fall...is a brilliant success. To be truly useful, however, it must help the reader to understand the what, why and how of events. Shirer did not understand what he witnessed. The readers of his book, who rely only on this resource for their understanding, will remain as confused and puzzeled as Shirer himself.

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Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: Don't be intimidated by the 1100+ pages of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." It reads more like a novel than a dry historical narrative and -- trust me on this -- this book is awesome.

As a reporter for CBS, William Shirer lived and worked in Germany during much of the Nazi movement. Until he left in 1940, he saw firsthand Hitler's rise to power, the consolidation of that power, and the use of that power. As a fallible human being, his prejudices may show through at times, but this is not necessarily a weakness. In today's climate of political correctness, works by historical revisionists -- that purport to show that Hitler and the Nazis weren't so bad -- are not only published, but they're even taken seriously. Perhaps our modern view of Hitler has been distorted by allied propaganda and Hitler and Goerring were fun loving and lovable guys, they say. At the extreme, some revisionists even claim that the Auschwitz death camp didn't even have gas chambers - they were added later as a tourist attraction! Yeah right.

In that sense, Shirer's book, published in 1959 is refreshing. He doesn't hold back one bit with his opinions.

Hence, Quisling is "pig-eyed", Rohm is a "pervert", Goebles is "dwarfish", Goering is "corpulent", Ribbentrop is "vain as a peacock", Brauchitsch is "unintelligent", Eva Braun has the "brain of a bird", and so forth. Such epithets may offend the sensibilities of some modern day readers, but they certainly spice up the telling of what could otherwise be a boring tale. (If you don't know who these people are, buy the book. Believe me, if you read it all the way through, you will become a formidable expert in Nazi trivia).

Because "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" was finished a mere 14 years after the fall of Nazi Germany, some facts that have come to light after its publication are necessarily missing. The premier example of this would be the breaking of the secret Nazi military codes by the British. But writing this book in 1959 also had its advantages. Many of the participants were still alive when William Shirer was doing his research. Hence, when encountering a slight inconsistency in General Franz Halder's war diary [The Chief of Staff of the High Command (the OKH)], William Shirer wrote to the old General and received "a prompt and courteous reply."

Perhaps Shirer's most vivid firsthand account of all is the several page description of the French surrender in the rail car at the forest at Compiegne:

"I look for the expression in Hitler's face. I am but fifty yards from him and see him though my glasses as though he were directly in front of me... He glances slowly around the clearing, and now, as his eyes meet ours, you grasp the depth of his hatred."

Amazing stuff.

But these personal accounts only take up a very small portion of this absolutely fantastic book. Particularly well covered was Hitler's rise to power -- a story that is not often told. The Hitler that Shirer paints during these early years is a very astute political observer who shrewdly plays the German people like a violin. He promises the people what they want, plays on their fears, and is extremely ruthless to anyone who dares to oppose him.

In later years, Shirer's Hitler's political savvy falls apart. At one point Shirer calls his inner circle a "lunatic asylum". Except for very occasional bursts of brilliance, Hitler has no idea what the heck he is doing politically much less militarily and yet his fanatical followers still go along with him. Hitler's megalomania goes on overdrive until, like a Viking in a Wagner opera his body is burned in a last stand against the Russian army just blocks away from his bunker.

While making my way through "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", I can't tell you how many times I would read about a pivotal event and wonder "WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING THROUGH THESE GUYS MINDS?" I always knew the Nazi's were nuts as well as scary. This book provided all of the details I needed.