Rating: 
Summary: This book is absolutely impossible to put down.
Review: William Shirer's book recounting in extremely fine detail one of the most covered subjects in world history has a unique, magical quality. I will not dwell on its accuracy and breadth of documentation, other reviewers have already noted it. The sheer quantity of original and secret material from the Nazi administration archives Shirer was able to use as a background to write this book boggles the mind - and he himself admits it would've taken many men many lifetimes to go through it all; but this is not my point. My point is that in anyone else's hands, this material would probably have resulted in a jaw-droppingly boring listing of names and minutes from cabinet meetings. What truly astonished me about this book were its overpowering demand for attention, its totally consistent clarity, its lightness of style and exposition that never, ever forgot precision and in-depth observation. I read this 1,100+-page book in two weeks, and not once through it I felt I wasn't understanding what it talked about. I'm not a faster or smarter-than-average reader: it was simply impossible to let the volume stand there, so much so that for two weeks I brought it with me everywhere I went, using every minute of free time (and also a few hours of work time) to read a few more lines, a few more paragraphs, please, just two more pages, I promise. For all the countless historical characters and extremely complex situations presented here (how could there not be, given the subject?), Shirer leads the reader through them with such powerful grace and insight that you have to strain to remind yourself this is not a Dashiell Hammett mystery, and that Adolf Hitler wasn't simply any Little Caesar. Though Shirer's judgment on the whole story is fairly explicit - and please let me add that it should simply be any reasonable person's judgment - he never lets it cloud his narration. People here are mostly shown through their actions, not ex-post interpretation or psychobabble. They lunge for your throat. Even the first page starts, so to speak, in mid-action, at the end of January 1933, with Hitler rising to Chancellorship after 14 years of founding the NSDAP. As you turn the pages, as story - and history - unfold, you feel the same uncertainty with which life itself unfolds, as if the Third Reich is growing day by day before your eyes and you actually don't know what tomorrow and the next page will bring, as if you didn't already know how the story ended. Shirer's book is the perfect example of how all history should be written.
Rating:
Summary: Simply The Best Overview Of Nazi Germany I've Read
Review: I promised myself that I would get around to reading this book "someday" when I was twenty--now I'm nearly forty and feel badly that I waited so long! This is a great book; not so much for its literary prose or intellectual bearing--but for the honest, straightforward way in which William Shirer tells the story quite literally of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Shirer was a newspaper man and broadcaster working in Germany and he saw the early rise of the Nazi party first-hand; although the book is long (1100+ pages in hardback), it reads like a giant newspaper story--as if each paragraph was written "top down" and cut at exactly the right point to keep you on the edge of your seat. Shirer has a curious habit of footnoting almost every fact--and his notes are at least as fine a read as his text. Although he freely admits his predjudices in the foreward (and only a robot would not have them)--he does a fine job of sticking to the job of factual story telling. From the standpoint of someone living in a western democracy in 1998, it's almost impossible to fathom the breadth and depth of the terrible deeds accomplished by Hitler's Third Reich--and how he was able to remain in power. Shirer really focuses the perspective here. Do yourself a favor--don't try to speak intelligently on the Third Reich at some cocktail party without having first read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Best historical source for Nazi Germany.
Review: I am a WWII fanatic. I've read an amzing amount of books on the subject, yet I've never encountered one as good as The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich. Shirer is not too harsh on the German people, like many Jewish and obviously influenced writers have been. He gives all aspects of everything and doesn't merely present the one-sided stereotype Allied view of things. It's a pity he was American. Otherwise there might have been some hope for him.
Rating:
Summary: The best work of Nazi Germany that I have ever seen.
Review: I have to confess. I am only a freshman in high school. My aspiration is to become a history major, and so I read this book in 5th grade. This is the book that was mostly responsible for making me want to chose this path. Shirer is a genius, and he makes the reader want to learn more about each and every one of the historical characters that he introduces. Truly #1 on my list.
Rating: 
Summary: A little meandering and outdated
Review: Shirer did a fine job explaining Hitler's origins; for this he deserves full credit. However, the book follows several blind alleys--parts of the story of WWII that are not really relevant 55 years later. Example: Shirer catelogues the multitudinous plots against Hitler that never were carried out. In retrospect, only the 1944 assassination plot had any real significance (by indirectly leading to Rommel's death, among other things). My advice to everyone is to read this book, but when Shirer starts diverging from the main topic, to just flip through those pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Long and boring.
Review: Although this book may be a classic it is not at all high school reading. It is required reading for my Honors World History class and many honors students are failing to understand this book and are in turn failing the class. Its too long and Shirer rambles on about stupid things. I think it would be better written if he got to the point and didnt beat around the bush.
Rating:
Summary: The most definitive account of those nighmarish years.
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read on this subject. The minute by minute account of the events and happenings, from the ascendance of Hitler to power, to his defeat, keeps one totally gripped. The part where Mr Shirer deals with events just before the attack on poland and eventually the start of the war is the best. He tells us history in such an interesting way that it is unbelievable. It is a must for every person interested in knowing such an important part of our past.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent tool to remember the past.
Review: Remembrance of the past helps us to understand the future. - William L. Shirer, May 1990. A democratic government is formed after suffering defeat in a long and costly war against the western nations of the world. Soon the country begins to experience the collapse of its new government amid economic uncertainty, currency devaluation, mistrust of the banking system, food shortages, and difficulty in maintaining ruling coalitions within its government. Germany and it's Weimar Republic experienced all of the above after World War I and before Hilter and his Nazi cronies came into power. But is history repeating itself with the democratic efforts of modern day Russia? Understanding this period of history and why the Weimar Republic failed may be the key to avoiding a repeat of history with the Russian democratic efforts or any other nation that pursues democratic reform after a long history of oppression. William Shirer, a journalist by trade, presents the history of the Nazification of Germany and its subsequent destruction in the who, what, when, where, why and how format of a true reporter. Relying on the tremendous store of Nazi documents recovered by the allied liberators of Europe, Shirer recreates the "GENISIS" of Hitler and the Nazi's rise to power. Their subsequent corruption and ultimate destruction of Germany's great institutions, including the education system, the medical and scientific community, the arts, and finally its vaunted military tradition, should have been a warning to the world. Instead, in the "NAME OF PEACE IN OUR TIME" the world stood by and watched until it was to late to stop the madness. I recommend that this book be used as the basis of any study on the history of WWII. Especially for those who wish to understand how this could happen to such a great nation and how we can prevent this from ever happening again.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: A must read for all people interested in the history of this century. Should be required reading to all American high school students.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars only because more were not an option!
Review: I read this book between semesters last year because I was going to take a History course that covered this period. I had wanted to read it for a long time--but the thing is so big, I kept putting it off! I am so glad I finally got around to reading it. I took a razor blade to my softcover copy to seperate the six books. It made it so much less intimidating! Only now I have to buy another copy! Shirer took a lot of sophisticated material and put it together in a very readable form. The first hundred pages were a bit hard, but after that the book absolutely soared! These are 1,500 pages that I will read again. Another thing I liked was Shirer's introduction. There are those who say that historys should not be written so soon after an event, but Shirer is well justified in his task as was Thucydides in his--and for the same reason. He was there.
|
