RISE&FALL OF 3RD REICH: Amazon.ca: William L. Shirer: Books

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""The New York Times Book Review" A splendid work of scholarship, objective in method, sound in judgment, inescapable in its conclusions." --Hugh Trevor-Roper --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Book Description

Before the Nazies could destroy the files, famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer sifted through the massive self-documentation of the Third Reich, to create a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind--now in a special 30th anniversary edition.
"One of the most important works of history of our time."
THE NEW YORK TIMES --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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First Sentence
ON THE VERY EVE of the birth of the Third Reich a feverish tension gripped Berlin. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

186 Reviews

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4.6 out of 5 stars (186 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, Mar 2 2010

By

AvidReader (Glace Bay, NS Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (Paperback)

Excellent, and if you are interested in Nazi Germany, then a must-read. Pretty long, but very readable. (It's quite obvious the author was a journalist and knew something about putting readable prose together.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dated or Not - Still The Epic 5 Star Story, Jan 16 2004

By

J. E. Robinson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (Paperback)

There have been a number of new revisions concerning the history of World War II as more and more documents were found, and then made available to the general public, or at least to researchers especially documents from the former USSR.

However I still like the books such as this book that were written by the people that actually lived through the war, especially when they were there as participants and reporters. To me they have the best perspective regardless of any "discoveries" 50 years later.

Also the war was a war of raw power and material and men carried out on a very large scale. It is hard to see how smaller details would have any meaningful impact on the outcome. The Third Reich had the upper hand initially because of their superb equipment such as tanks, planes, and submarines. Their people were trained and disciplined. But once they entered the vast lands of the USSR they were swallowed by the size and winter climate as was Napolean's army 130 years before. Then the German troops had to face the Americans who could turn out planes, ships, tanks, and trained troops like cookies.

From my perspective, the basic thrust of the war was set by the large scale military power and the massive movements of men and materials. I think this is portrayed faithfully by this epic book which is 1200 pages long. It is for the most part an accurate picture of what took place. Sure things have been discovered, and things could have been done a bit different if more information was available, but for the most part these things they would have had little impact on the war and its outcome.

So for me this book remains one of the definitive stories on WW II told by people there at the scene.

Five stars.

Jack in Toronto

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A riviting read . . ., July 10 2004

By

Robert Wynkoop (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany (Paperback)

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.

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