Rating: 
Summary: An absorbing read
Review: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a unique history of Hitler's Germany as seen through the eyes (at least during the first half of its life) of an American journalist in Berlin.
The whole book, categorized labouriously into many sections detailing Hitler's youth, his rise to fame, the political machinations that led to his ultimate rise to power are ruthlessly laid out in chilling detail. The first half is especially fascinating for it builds up the tension as Hitler strides from relative obscurity to become the most powerful man in Germany in one stroke and then mercilessly annhilating his political opponents (including those in his own party).
The second half of the book deals mainly with the events that led up to the World War II, something that is laid out in great detail (especially the political events in the capitals of Europe). Here, the book becomes more historic in nature (though a lot of quotes are still given).
The capitulation of Austria, the bloodless conquest of Czechoslovakia, the fall of Poland are all given thorough examination and a wide treatment.
The third half of the book deals with the fall of the Third Reich and here the read becomes terrifying (especially the portion titled "The New Order"). This part of the book details, in sickening detail, the treatment of the prisoners of war, the Jews and the people in the conquered lands. The butchery and savagery of the Nazis apart, the bestial medical experiments conducted by the Nazis are also detailed here: something that could have been avoided.
The book is a hard read and sometimes there are inconsistencies (such as when some events are given extremely detailed importance while others are glossed over).
Some of Hitler's closest subordinates are also pictured in lurid detail (some of the funny ones being the corpulence of Goering and the mental incapacity and vanity of Ribbentrop, Hitler's foriegn minister).
All in all, an excellent book and a must-read for all those seeking knowledge of the Third Reich and its Supreme Leader, Adolf Hitler.
Rating: 
Summary: massive work of scholarship, by an eye witness
Review: I have looked at this book on my shelf for over 35 years. Students have mentioned it to me, as have history profs at Oberlin and Harvard. But it is so massive at 1,150 pages - I think it could stop a bullet - that it has intimidated me. So, in a moment between jobs, I took it on: it sets, in a word, THE STANDARD for all subsequent histories of one of the darkest chapters of the 20C. This is brilliant and will survive as a classic of the genre of first-rate history as written by a reporter who was there.
The first 1/4 of the book is about the rise of Hitler. He was a bum and dreamer in Austria, had a galvinising experience as a corporal in WWI, and linked himself to bizarre and parochial right-wing nationist groups in the 1920s, which were terrible years of crisis in greater Germany. Shirer brilliantly delineates the stages of this, as Hitler stepped to the stage of an obsure Bavarian group of about 30 fanatics, to become the indisputed leader of Germany by 1933. This was a work, in a peculiar period that was not cosmopolitan, that was political genius. Shirer demonstrates, without depth-psychology vocabulary, how Hitler felt what his generation suffered deeply and then articulated it in a political format. This is truly brialliant scholarship and, at times, great writing.
The next quarter of the book is devoted to diplomatic history, from the audacious triumphs of Hitler (the Sudeten, Munich, etc.). While it loses its psychological depth, the international context - and what a dictator could at the time accomplish in it - comes to the fore. It is an entirely different set of circumstances that involve Mussolini, the weakness of Chamberlin's England, and the neutral US. While there is much about the character of the actors, such as Germany's foreign minister Ribbentrop, who is characterised too frequently as an arrogant mediocity. This is where Hitler gains parts of Poland, the Sudeten, Austria, and Poland bloodlessly.
Then comes the last half of the book. This makes for dreary reading in two ways. First, with the Blitzkrieg and the industry to support it, Hitler is triumphant. He takes France and Normay and the low countries with extraodinary speen. It involves tanks, airplanes that dominate the airspace and cut supply lines, and quick movement of troops as they all cut enemy supply lines and communications. It was a totally new form of warfare, and it took the great power France by surprize.
Second, once Germany attacked the USSR, the war became one of attrition, a more traditional form along the lines of WWI. The USA entered and the vast resoures of the USSR created the traditional nightmare for Germany of a two-front war. It became a question of resources then, and Germany was lost. The unbelievably vast machiery then set itself in motion to smash Nazi Germany, and it was then, as de Gaulle said, only a matter of time.
So the last 1/3 of the book is about Nazi Germainy's mistakes and collapse. It is depressing reading, and has an inevitability about it that makes for boring reading. This was a slog and I have had enought of German hostory for at least two years!
Shirer also covers what happended in Germany and then in the occupied countries. It ss ugly and well know that I will not go into it here except to say that modern Germany is no longer so parochial and this kind of thing can never happen again. Hitler's fall is, well, boring and depressing.
Shirer is not perfect. His work is bound to its time, the 40-60s. He calls the Sa, for example, "homosexual perverts". This is a traditional view of the times, but it dates the book. Nonetheless, this work sets the standard for all follolwing scholarship, and that makes it a classic. His writing style is clear and very personal, which I view as assets.
All is all, warmly recommended as a great work of scholarship, with many personal asides that add character and honesty t the work. This is a truly great book and the masterpeice of a lifetime.
Rating:
Summary: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Review: ~Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich~ is one of the definitive historical works on Nazi Germany by a journalist who was their to witness its ascent. I first read William Shirer's perennial classic on the Third Reich at age thirteen and recently revisited the pivotal chapters. This monumental work first released in 1959 documents the ascendancy and fall of Nazi Germany. Shrier chronicles the fledging days of the violent NSDAP agitation in Bavaria and the failed Beer Hall Putsch that preceded Hitler's imprisonment. The intellectual and ideological origins of the national socialist movement are probed in great detail with amazing clarity. A myriad of proto-Nazi intellectuals from H.S. Chamberlain, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, and Richard Wagner were the ideological archetypes for National Socialism. Shirer gives attention to Hitler's intellectual development and the impetus for the violent movement.
Amazing clarity is given to coverage of Hitler's stunning democratic coup d'état and violent intimidation that preceded the creation of the dictatorial office of Fuhrer and Hindenburg's abdication of power. Hitler can lay claim to being an arch-Democrat, because he proves an overthrow of power can be done legally and democratically, which should serve as warning of the necessity to fortify the rule of law, checks and balances, and a decentralized polity to stave off the ascendancy of absolutist, dictatorial tyranny. Whereas the violent 1923 Beer Hall Putsch failed the NSDAP represented a failed effort to seize Bavaria, democratic assent coupled by demagoguery and trickery brought Hitler in on a red carpet by 1933.
Chapters chronicling the steps towards building a totalitarian state with its distinctive ideology of pagan tribalism, which was simultaneously anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-liberal, and anti-Bolshevik. Life in the Third Reich captures the implementation of Nazi ideology as the party grafted and infused its ideology into the omnipotent German State. Nazi foreign policy is covered with great clarity from the bold German demands for Lebensraum to the short-lived 1930s alliance with the Soviets to divvy up Poland. I find that the book trails off towards the end as Shirer is better at documenting Nazi Germany's political history more so than its military history.
Shirer as a liberal journalist doesn't want to fully acknowledge the socialism of National Socialism. He just writes it off as sham socialism. It's always been the bane of liberals, socialists and Marxists to admit National Socialism's leftist character and that it was socialist. Read their platform! Nazi propagandists like Goebbels readily acknowledged it to be a movement of the "German Left" opposed to faux bourgeoisie nationalism. (_Leftism Revisted_ by Erik von Keunelt-Leddihn and _The Fuehrer_ by Konrad Heiden acknowledge that the NSDAP saw themselves as leftist ideologues.)
Shirer has a trenchant pen at times, though some of his war chronicling is rather lackluster. This book doesn't really get into the personality of Hitler nor does it delve too much into the full impact of Nazi policy on the people under its control. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a groundbreaking classic and overall it is a fascinating look into the ascent of one of the most belligerent totalitarian regimes of the past century. I recommend a more modern book _The Third Reich: A New History_ by Michael Burleigh to supplement this volume.
Rating:
Summary: French diplomats give store away to Austrian Corporal
Review: Although we covered Hitler and Nazi Germany in high school history, William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich provides the details that were lacking from those lectures.
·Hitler was a genius at reading situations, people, and motivations, and in manipulating his enemies into a corner. I knew that he was a master orator and a skilled propagandist, but I didn't realize how well he was able to outmaneuver professional diplomats.
·The English and French could have stopped Hitler during the Sudetenland incidents (but instead abdicated their responsibilities with Chamberlain's Munich capitulation), and prior to and again during the invasion of Poland (by proactively allying with Russia, and by invading Germany while his army was busy in Poland). At the time of the Sudetenland adventure, the army staff was ready to rebel if France and England had forced Hitler to declare war to get his way.
·The defeat of the French was due to a daring tactical use of a new weapon (concentrated tank formations) and a feint of the failed von Schlieffen plan.
·An error in judgment allowed the English to escape at Dunkirk. Another error in navigation allowed the RAF to recover from its initial disadvantage.
·There was a conspiracy among some high ranking officers to get rid of Hitler throughout the war, but they didn't follow through until the war was nearly over. Shame and ruin came to Germany because nobody had the greatness, courage, or tactical ability to stand up to the increasingly megalomaniacal sheissekopf.
For me, the price was well worth the description of the diplomatic intrigue that led to the war. Shirer dedicates nearly half of the book to diplomacy and international issues from the Reichstag fire to the invasion of France. Using primary materials such as diaries, captured German documents, and Nuremberg testimony, Shirer weaves the story of the maneuvering that allowed Hitler to capture Austria and Czechoslovakia without firing a shot; to capture Poland without being attacked by France England, or Russia; and Norway, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France with minimal loss of life and materiel.
On the negative side, Shirer allows his personal opinions to color the narrative far too often. Goering is always described as fat, Ribbentrop is always described as vain, etc. Roehm and several other Nazis are described as homosexual in such a way as to imply that "perversions" like Nazism and homosexuality [Shirer's characterization, not mine] are necessarily linked. Fortunately, he puts those issues aside when he gets to the meat of the story. Also, I agree with another reviewer that the book could have used a few maps to remind the reader of the location of certain key cities and/or defensive positions described in the narration.
On balance, the book is as good as could be expected given the scope of the task. Shirer was a journalist, not a historian, so he approaches the events leading to the war from that perspective, while his history of the Nazi movement prior to Hitler's appointment as Chancellor leaves much to be desired. For example, he doesn't seem to notice how often key figures shift alliances between the "mortal enemy" Communist party and the Nazi party. His firsthand observation probably influenced his choice of key events to describe, whereas a historian coming along afterward, with no personal experience to bias his selection of events, might have chosen differently. For example, Kristallnacht, the 1936 Olympics, and the Spanish Civil War are all glossed over. Still, the book covers most of the key points; any more depth or breadth would require the book to be longer than its nearly 1200 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Shirer provides unparalleled insights into the Third Reich
Review: This is truly an incredible work of history -- almost journalism, seeing that Shirer was actually present during most of the build-up of the Nazi state. His combination of documented scholarship and personal insight produce an extremely accessible while still very detailed account of what happened and, more importantly, why the events occurred the way they did as a result of the individual and state-level beliefs and motivations.That said, however, the book has one critical flaw, in that it fails to offer a reasonable answer to the most fundamental and desperately important question: how did so many people (the German public) allow such abominable atrocities to occur in their name? Shirer's answer basically comes down to bloodlust and a will to dominate being fundamental to the German national character. This is simply unacceptable, a complete cop-out on the very question that he is probably solely positioned to fully answer. There is *no such thing* as 'national character'; cultural differences to be sure, but no people are fundamentally so different from the rest of us that they take wholesale slaughter and oppression as a natural way of life. Perhaps there is no rational answer, and I can't hold Shirer responsible for finding one. But to blame the nature of the German is akin to the bigotry that brought the Nazis to power. I think the question of how Naziism gained so much support while being so extremely evil must be visited and re-visited until we recognize how to stop it. Common decency is the last hope of mankind, and we now know an entire nation can abandon it. Bush's 'Americans aren't like that' arguments aside, we need to make sure we know how to prevent it happening to us.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing tale...
Review: I started reading this book when I was 13. It was the first book I had read about WWII. It was difficult to get into at first, and I probably would not recommend it to anyone who hasn't read anything about WWII before. Shirer sometimes introduces new figures without an explanation as to who they were. It took me almost half the book to figure out Goebbles position. This book is an amazingly detailed account of Nazi Germany. The details are arranged in such a way that it is extremely interesting. His thought progression is logical and he allows the reader to take in the important details. I find it very important for people to read this book. My views on life, politics, and war completely changed after finishing the book. We take so much for granted in the United States. It was only 80 years ago that Germany went through the depression. Politics were much different back then than now. Anyone who wants to be able to look at World War II in a different light, and see what they are really taking for granted, should definitely read this book. It is a truly amazing tale.
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