Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich

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Summary: Engrossing, serious work on serious subject
Review: Shirer's Rise & Fall has been a classic for over 37 years, I finally read it during the last two months. I found it be extremely well documented, with facts, footnotes. Surprisingly, despite it's length, it is a book which keeps the reader involved, brings this horrific period to life. I would recommend to any person interested in world history as a must read.

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Summary: Capitivating History
Review: This book is one of the most dog-eared books in a small collection of books devoted to the WWI time period in history because it has been read and re-read many times.William L. Shirer captures the times in a way only one who lived through them can possibly do. It struck me as odd at first how interesting reading about history can be, when one already knows the outcome of the story. But there are lessons to be learned from repeated readings and Shirer does a great job making sure that the reader does not put the book down for long. The footnotes are well done and provide an even greater in-depth look into the events that were unfolding on the pages before you. Shirer is careful to avoid opinionated writing and sticks to the facts as they are known to him like a Captain sticks to his plotted course. Two thumbs up!

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Summary: Great overview if you filter out opinions of the author.
Review: The book provides a great overview of WWII including many good details of the workings of the Third Reich. Sometime there are too many details which gets very tedious, but otherwise the book seems thorough (although I do not know enough to say if it is all fact). There is an awful lot of opinion in the text which may alter the facts.

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Summary: If you read only one book about the 3rd Reich, make it this.
Review: I will be the first to admit that modern German history and WW2 in particular have always been a topic to avoid. I belong to the generation that grew up with "Hogan's Heroes" on one side and a profound cognizance of the holocaust on the other making objectivity toward the subject elusive at best. Shirer delivers the facts with about as much objectivity as possible (especially for an eye-witness of much that went on). The strange personalities behind the Reich, the socio-economic envrionment that made it possible and, of course, the evil paradoxical mastermind at the center of the Reich...it's all here laid out in a lucid narrative that is really hard to put down.

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Summary: One of the most important books to own.
Review: A must read for anyone who wants to expand their mind about history and the destructive power of hate. I just moved from Washington State, USA to Heidelburg, Germany and I was told that this book would fill me with pertinant knowledge. It did. The only drawback: Shirer is a homophobe. Very ironic, dissapointing, and distracting to the reading and learning experience. In teaching us how truly atrocious racism is Shirer feels the need to enlighten us on the fact that the Nazi leaders are "Homosexual Perverts" at every turn in the text. For those of us with good friends that are homosexual, it takes away from the story. If you can ignore that road-bump, this book will impact your life.

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Summary: Excellent, well documented history of Nazi Germany
Review: This book gives us a great insight into the working of the Nazi government, the personalities in it and its dealings with other countries. It is extremely detailed and leaves out nothing.

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Summary: A fantastic read,he brings all the Nazis to life-an epic
Review: I have read this book at least three times and find each read as fascinating as the first time I picked it up. His detailed story of the Nazis from their humble beginninigs in Munich to the terrible conclusion in 1945 is gripping reading. Simply one of the best books I have ever read

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Summary: A riviting read . . .
Review: On the very eve of the birth of the Third Reich a feverish tension gripped Berlin . . . Wow! what a great first sentence! Having read this book almost thirty years ago, it still remains the best and most complete history of the Third Reich I have read. Shires purpose is not merely to describe the events that led up to the founding of the Reich and its eventual destruction; but to discover and document the intrigues, treachery, motives and aberrations that precipitated its rise and fall.

I will let others review the history and critique Shire on his research, I would like to comment on the beauty of his prose as he describes what must be the most hellish and destructive state that has existed. Historians have the tendency to be dull, they get so caught up in explaining facts and documenting the movement of armies across strange and foreign landscapes, that the reader tends to get lost in a maze of statistics, foreign names, and seemingly insignificant details. Shire avoids this common pitfall. For instance, after quoting from a German generals diary which described Hitlers intentions in occupied Poland, Shire describes the Nazi intentions in vivid prose. . . Nazi terror. . . forerunner to dark and terrible deeds. . . Nazi barbarism reached an incredible depth. Although Shire, in the introduction of this book made the assertion of strict objectivity, he did not let his objectivity hide the awfulness of Nazi atrocities.

Although well written, it is not an easy book to read. Its sheer length of over 1100 pages may be daunting to the faint of heart; yet, if you are not familiar with the Third Reich and want to have an understanding of the people whom were instrumental in its raise and fall, no other book will give you better oversight and understanding of it than The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Rating:
Summary: The very definition of a classic piece of writing
Review: Every home ought to have a bookshelf in the family room where classic, timeless books are kept as homages to reading and learning, and this book is required for that bookshelf. So thorough, so well-written, so engrossing: it is undeniably a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: The Drama and the Horror
Review: On the grounds that huge topics deserve huge books, I suppose one could not get any larger than The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Like the war itself, I suppose, I saw William Shirer's magnificent work extended endlessly in front of me for a good long time, and I wondered if it was going to end. Unlike the war, the book is quite enjoyable, informative, and lively and overall a pleasure to read.

With Germany's defeat came an enormous quantity of captured documents, all of which went into Allied possession. Shirer thus spent many years sifting through these documents to put together a closely focused picture of the goings on inside Nazi Germany. Additionally, Shirer was himself a reporter stationed in and around Germany during the thirties and up until America's entry into the war. These two situations give the author a deep and profound knowledge of the subject, and make Shirer eminently qualified to write such a far-reaching tome as this.

It is the first circumstance, Shirer's access to documents, that forms the structure of the book. From the start, Shirer focuses tightly on the leadership and on events in the High Command. Although we do get a lead up of a few hundred pages on Germany and Hitler prior to his taking over, the bulk of the book is a close political look at the Third Reich from the inside. At the same time, Shirer does break in routinely to give his personal take on many events, particularly prior to the war. Being there himself, he was able to attend most of the speeches Hitler gave, and was able to be in cities when major events were unfolding. Throughout, we are taken inside German society of the time and given the author's own opinions as well as specific accounts of conversations he had with Germans of all walks of life. But always the focus is on the German government. What this means, among other things, is that we don't see so much of the happenings within Britain, or France, or The United States, or The Soviet Union. To be sure, Shirer does cover these in a thorough enough manner to keep the reader properly apprised, but only when they become important. An example is Japan. Only when we reach late 1941 does Shirer break off from his train of thought to bring us up to date on the strange manner in which Japan and Germany become allies. It is here as well that The United States makes its first large appearance in the book. Likewise, although they are hardly skimped on, major military campaigns and battles are less central than in other books, because as always the spotlight never strays far from the documents and from the core of the Nazi party. Hitler is very much the villainous star of this book, and his personal traits are brought out in depth. Shirer takes an interesting path here, not quite that of the normal historical work. He never fails to offer one-liners about particular individuals. I lost count of how many times he called Hermann Goering fat, and with an impressive array of synonyms to back himself up (corpulent was a frequent variation). He even points out the odd virtuous characteristic if he spots one (example: though trivial in comparison, Hitler himself never amassed a great personal fortune in looted treasures, unlike Goering who filled mansions with them). But what this relative de-emphasis on other countries and specific military campaigns means is that the reader gets an incredibly detailed look at events deep in the heart of darkness.

Published in 1960, this is not the final word on the Third Reich. And I'm pretty sure more recent historiography has cast a different light on Nazi Germany. And despite its enormous size, Shirer can still give only a survey of the situation as it happened. But even with all of these factors, I can think of no reason why the interested reader should not set aside the time and effort to master this incredible work.