“In this political season, William L. Shirer’s mammoth history of Hitler’s Germany seems a useful guide to how a skilled demagogue can seize and destroy a great nation.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
The author was a journalist and war correspondent who was present when Hitler rose to power and in later years. Published in 1960, a mere fifteen years after the death of Hitler it is without a doubt a well written and thoroughly researched work of historic literature.
Over the years I have read many books about this time some fact and others fiction but none have affected me as much as this. During Hitler’s reign of terror the reader becomes well acquainted with how deep and extensive his hatred was.
It wasn’t just limited to the Jews albeit they were top of his list…but to any human not being of German nationality. Even before he conquered a country he already had plans on how he would cut it up, either annihilate the inhabitants or make them slaves to the German people.
If Hitler hadn’t been the megalomaniac he was the world we know would not exist in any form. When the end was upon him, one of his last orders was to annihilate Berlin and all it’s inhabitants, the people he professed to love he felt were not worthy of his greatness. The order was disobeyed and he died a cowards death taking his hate with him.
I do think this is a book worth reading and any questions I might have had about Hitler and the Third Reich were fully answered, also be prepared there are many gruesome descriptive parts included in the book.
Reviewed by:
Diana S. Long
Added 9th May 2018
