by William Shirer

isbn: 0449219771
subject: Nonfiction, History, Military
finished: 4/6/1999

In the forward Shirer says that

...this personal experience would not have led me to attempt to write this book had there not occurred at the end of World War II an event unique in history. This was the capture of most of the confidential archives of the German government and all its branches, including those of the Foreign Office, the Army and Navy, the National Socialist Party and Heinrich Himmler's secret police. Never before, I believe, has such a vast treasure fallen into the hands of contemporary historians.

Shirer's contribution, then, was to reduce more than 485 tons of documents from an unusually bureaucratic government to a mere 1500 pages. Those 1500 pages absorbed nearly all of my reading time for six weeks. The first half of the book details the rise of the Nazis; its theme is that time and time again, Hitler could have been prevented from rising to power, or deposed once he was dictator. That he was never stopped, even though in Mein Kampf he told the world what he planned to do, is the source of much irony. The second half of the book follows events to their bitter conclusion as Hitler's overestimation of the Wehrmacht's capabilities and his own, the reason for so many early successes, leads to defeat.

Shirer was well qualified to write a history of the Reich -- as a press correspondent he lived in Germany during most of the 1930s. His writing style is reminiscent of newspaper writing; it's a little dry at times, but overall this is a thoroughly absorbing book. Unfortunately, Shirer lets too much of his personal bias against the Germans slip into the narrative -- the events should speak for themselves (and they do -- "evil" really seems to be the best way to describe the Nazis). He describes the Nazi death squads and concentration camps, but the view is fairly detached -- for a more personal picture of life under the Nazis, I recommend reading Maus I or something by Primo Levi. Anyway, despite a few nit-picks, I think this is an incredible book and I highly recommend it.