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xxstefaniereadsxx's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This book is referenced a lot in a book group that I am in. I have had it for a while, and in my attempt to read all the books that I own that I have not yet gotten to, I finally decided to get to this one. William Shirer was a foreign correspondent, who had the fairly unique position of reporting on the climate and events leading up to the outbreak of World War II and beyond. I appreciate his descriptive writing style and attention to detail. This book, and the second volume, are really very good and provide a lost of details about pre-war and mid-war Europe. This is a really great book for gaining perspective on the climate in Europe.
ouroredux's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Harrowing; pulled me into WWII in a way no history book ever has. Unfortunately, its lessons on the rise of fascism are still far too relevant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, War, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Antisemitism and Genocide
Minor: Suicide attempt and Racial slurs
nrschultz's review
5.0
The depiction of Nazi Germany in this book is not what I expected. Shirer is not a fan, but his reasons are not those that first come to mind, namely the brutal persecution of Jews, Pols and other European minorities. Instead, as is not surprising from the diary of a journalist, much of the vitriol the Shirer talks about is around the Nazi propaganda machine, and how it affects not only his work as a reporter, but also the attitudes of average Germans across WWII Germany. This is an excellent book.
gdollinger's review
4.0
Reading about 1940 in 2020. Temptation to compare Nazi Germany to Trumpian USA. Trump is no Hitler. He more of a Goring. A fat incompetent bully. Fox and OAN media are similar to Nazi media.
see p 539 “..in the present totalitarian atmosphere, where words have lost all meaning, anything becomes true merely because the controlled press says so.”
America Firstism doesn’t far well in comparison either.
p. 583 . “..it means more of the milk and honey of this world for them. That it will of necessarily be obtained at the expense of other peoples — Czechs, Poles, Scandinavias, French - does bot bother the Germanin the least. On this he has no moral scruples whatsoever”
see p 539 “..in the present totalitarian atmosphere, where words have lost all meaning, anything becomes true merely because the controlled press says so.”
America Firstism doesn’t far well in comparison either.
p. 583 . “..it means more of the milk and honey of this world for them. That it will of necessarily be obtained at the expense of other peoples — Czechs, Poles, Scandinavias, French - does bot bother the Germanin the least. On this he has no moral scruples whatsoever”
rumaho76's review
dark
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.75
This is the diary of a US foreign correspondent during the run up to and the first couple of years of WWII. Reading about someone who had a close up view of the main figures and how hen dealt with, for example, censorship was fascinating
notmignon's review against another edition
4.0
This is a long book (about 600 pages) with which I had a love-hate relationship. Despite this - Overall, the perspective was amazing - an American correspondent who had been living in Europe total of 15 years, had access to the power and much information about what was going on as Hitlers came to power and expanded the "Reich", and had the critical thoughts to put things together. He was censored during his normal correspondence with America by the propaganda machine, so he could never report the whole truth or even parts of it at times, but he kept a journal detailing as much as possible about how this happened.
Reading this today, paired with and compared against the moves (or attempts of our current president to discount the media and further divide the country, I become very concerned and am thinking of taking up a similar journal project
Reading this today, paired with and compared against the moves (or attempts of our current president to discount the media and further divide the country, I become very concerned and am thinking of taking up a similar journal project
opal360's review
4.0
Truly fascinating. I was interested particularly in Shirer's observations on how Hitler enthralled the masses, and on the effects of living with a media that lied continually. Published in 1941 but more than just a "period piece".
the_lilypad's review against another edition
3.0
William Shirer made the choice to keep a journal to chronicle his time in Germany as a broadcaster as world war 2 got started.
At times this book plodded along slowly, which makes sense because there was a lot of waiting. Is today going to be the day the war began?
And then of course there were the similarities between what’s going on now in the US to the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany.
At times this book plodded along slowly, which makes sense because there was a lot of waiting. Is today going to be the day the war began?
And then of course there were the similarities between what’s going on now in the US to the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany.