The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Paperback – October 11, 2011

A friend suggested that I read this, because of the similarities to what is currently going on in our political system today. I found the similarities frightening. But regardless of your views, I think that it is an important part of history that everyone should be reminded of. One thing that struck me was mention of the author's take on the subject. That of a historian, who is reporting on events. While there are times where the author interject his viewpoints, he clearly indicates such in those passages.I highly recommend having a dictionary handy. Often, there are words that I am unfamiliar with that I had to look up. Words that, for literary people might understand; but not for the average person.In the beginning the author provides full names and descriptions of who people are and why they are important to the events. However, once introduced, only names are provided. After reading Part 1, I found that, at times, the author would mention a name, and I couldn't remember who they were and why they were important to the events. This led me to lose understanding, and interest, and I debated moving forward.What I ended up doing was creating a file that contained pictures of the person and a description of who they are and what importance they had. Once I created the picture/description file, I ended up going back and starting from the beginning. I found it very helpful and made things much easier to understand and made the reading much easier.All-in-all, while lengthy, an important read!

I’ve always wanted to get to this book in my studies on WW2. I mainly read about the American Civil War and the Roman Empire, but about a 3 years ago I decided to focus more on biographies. Discovered the Amazing Allison Weir, and Margaret George. Special shout to Margaret who’s Memoirs of Cleopatra had me read 4 straight books on Women of the Roman world. Sorry I digress, but the point was after all that I was wanting to get back to my typical type of historic read and felt it was time for Mr. Shirers detailed history of Nazi Germany. My one knock against this book is the Swastikas on cover and spine. I’m not offended by it because I look at it from the historical nature, plus know my book is in no way pro third Reich, but I got some looks on a few flights I took while reading this book. In this day and age I think it’s best to keep that symbol off reading material regardless of historical importance it’s not needed, and gives people the wrong impression. Outside of that this is truly the best book on the Third Reich I have ever read. Not only the amazing detail and information, but William Shrirer has the personal experience and journalistic background that make his take perfect for the source material. He covers the various takes on controversial military decisions made by Hitler. He knows when to display the atrocities and evil of the Nazi Regime, and when to tell the objective viewpoint. You can tell this man spent a lot of time and chose his words carefully to limit his personal bias when it was important to be objective. A true masterpiece of history, and amazing post war study combined with his own first hand accounts. Structured masterfully, told truthfully, and brings a lunchbox style work ethic to explain a dense two decades of history.

Shirer's world-famous book is nothing less than a complete history of Nazi Germany. It begins with a summary of Hitler's childhood, and gathers steam as Hitler becomes more involved with what begins as a rag-tag group of misfits in a Vienna basement. From there Shirer details the countless strategies done, lies told, and careers ruined in the creation of such an incredibly powerful new era in European politics and world history.A mere book review can never adequately convey the scope of the work, so I can at best describe how well Shirer achieves his aims in writing the book. The book throughout is fascinatingly told, even when its voice dryly accounts confusing maneuvers Hitler made in rising within the ranks of the Wehrmact government in the first part of the book. It obviously gains steam as Hitler begins to formulate his plans against France, Poland and the Soviet Union, and by the time the defeat at Stalingrad comes around it is consistently absorbing. What also differentiates this from the standard work of history is the emotion that Shirer puts into it (the war could not have been over for very long before he began the writing of the book, as it was published in the early '60's), his expansive access to German documents (secret or otherwise), and his physical presence in the actual places where some incredibly important WWII events occurred. In describing a scene between Chamberlain and Hitler in Munich in 1939, the writer recounts watching the two men actually leaving their meeting place, chatting, and walking past him. This detail wouldn't necessarily heighten or decrease the quality of the overall work, but it does give it a freshness and immediacy that both helps the reader be more than just a casual observer and gives it a street cred that other works written long after the fact may lack. It is this closeness to the subject matter that you continually feel throughout the book, which combined with the painstaking detail and concentrated scope of the book make it vital reading for anyone with any interest in the subject matter. From the early victories to the quick and stunning defeat, there is also a high level of tension and excitement in the book that really sets it apart. My only real issue with the book would be its occasional pacing; some of the events in the book are mysteriously given more detail than others (the Valkyrie assassination attempt section is much longer than the section on the entire Holocaust, for example). Read it a little bit at a time- it will go by faster than you'd think. One of the century's most important books.