The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

But this sort of cultural essentialism is, for me, just intellectual laziness. That is, he locates a kind of cultural essence in the German people, an essence stemming from the Reformation and especially Martin Luther, added to by Hegel and then by Nietzsche, which came to full fruition in National Socialism. Further, Shirer’s explanation of why Germany embarked on such a destructive enterprise boils down to: because it is peopled by Germans.

A historian would naturally spend more time on the rampant inflation of the times, the institutional weakness of the Weimar Republic, the wider political trends in Europe, the mechanics of a totalitarian state, and so on. This focus makes the narrative vivid and pleasingly concrete, but also results in a superficial analysis. Rather than talk of larger trends-social shifts, economic pressures, cultural developments-Shirer focuses almost exclusively on the doings of individuals in power, such as he had been reporting on. This firsthand experience lent color to his narrative, but also focused his attention on readily observable events. He lived in Berlin as a foreign correspondent from 1933 to the end of 1940, reporting on the rise of Hitler and the beginnings of the war, until the threat of the Gestapo forced him to return home. Diaries, schedules, testimonies from the Nuremberg trials, the minutes of meetings, and much more were the raw material marshalled to create this tome.Īs is often noted, Shirer was a journalist, not a historian, a fact that helps to explain much about this book. He wrote the book after having access to huge stores of documents captured by the Allies after the war. Charting the Third Reich from the birth of Hitler to the collapse of Germany, Shirer tells the whole story with the sweep of a novelist and the detail of an accountant.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Running the (Full) M… on The Madrid Half-MarathonĢ023: New Year… on From Gold to Glory: A Slice of… Alicante & the I… on Summertime in Andalucía: Jerez…Īlicante & the I… on The Monastery of El Escor…

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer