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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsThe Long Night: William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reichby Steve Wick
Review-A-Day"William L. Shirer, born in 1904, was one of the twentieth century's great reporters. He witnessed many of the key events of the 1930s in Europe at first hand and wrote and broadcast about them in a graphic and accessible style, making their complexities comprehensible to his readers and listeners back in the United States. He saw the Nuremberg rally of the Nazi Party in 1934, Hitler's announcement of the German march into the Rhineland in 1936, the German takeover of Austria in 1938, and the invasion of Poland in September, 1939. He was with the German armies as they conquered France in 1940. In between, he reported on Nazi rule in Germany, and was one of the first foreigners to discover the Nazis' mass murder of more than a hundred thousand mentally ill and handicapped Germans in the gas chambers set up in mental hospitals by teams whose expertise was later used in the extermination camps to kill far larger numbers of Jews." Richard J. Evans, The New Republic (Read the entire New Republic review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The story of legendary American journalist William L. Shirer and how his first-hand reporting on the rise of the Nazis and on World War II brought the devastation alive for millions of Americans When William L. Shirer started up the Berlin bureau of Edward R. Murrows CBS News in the 1930s, he quickly became the most trusted reporter in all of Europe. Shirer hit the streets to talk to both the everyman and the disenfranchised, yet he gained the trust of the Nazi elite and through these contacts obtained a unique perspective of the partys rise to power. Unlike some of his esteemed colleagues, he did not fall for Nazi propaganda and warned early of the consequences if the Third Reich was not stopped. When the Germans swept into Austria in 1938 Shirer was the only American reporter in Vienna, and he broadcast an eyewitness account of the annexation. In 1940 he was embedded with the invading German army as it stormed into France and occupied Paris. The Nazis insisted that the armistice be reported through their channels, yet Shirer managed to circumvent the German censors and again provided the only live eyewitness account. His notoriety grew inside the Gestapo, who began to build a charge of espionage against him. His life at risk, Shirer had to escape from Berlin early in the war. When he returned in 1946 to cover the Nuremberg trials, Shirer had seen the full arc of the Nazi menace. It was that experience that inspired him to write The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich—the magisterial, definitive history of the most brutal ten years the modern world had known—which has sold millions of copies and has become a classic. Drawing on never-before-seen journals and letters from Shirers time in Germany, award-winning reporter Steve Wick brings to life the maverick journalist as he watched history unfold and first shared it with the world. Review:"The accomplishments of acclaimed American journalist William Shirer are celebrated in Wick's latest book, which faithfully tracks the ambitious writer's Midwest origins to his Chicago Tribune reporting apprenticeship and landing a plum job as the workhorse of Edward Murrow's CBS News bureau in 1933 Berlin. Wick, a Pulitzer-winning staffer at Newsday, uses unpublished letters and journals, showing the dogged Shirer, uneasy in the new Germany, wary of the rise of the National Socialists with their swastikas, heated rhetoric, rigid social codes, and treatment of Jews. Shirer, realizing that he was witnessing a historic event in the corruption of a nation by Hitler and his cronies, risked the ire of Nazi officials watching for a wrong move. He 'ask the wrong question, the wrong story, to the wrong people,' even if that meant risking deportation. After his hasty exit in 1940 (both personally and professionally depleted), Shirer collected his reportage, captured Third Reich documents, and Nuremburg trial testimony to form The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which won the 1961 National Book Award. Wick (Bad Company: Drugs, Hollywood and the Cotton Club Murder) offers an absorbing and very detailed account, the perfect companion piece to Shirer's masterwork. (Aug.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Synopsis:Published to widespread media attention, The Long Night follows the tremendous journey of legendary American journalist William L. Shirer. During the 1930s, Shirer brought the events in Europe to the English speaking world through his broadcasts on Edward R. Murrow's CBS. Despite the Nazis best attempts to control the airwaves, he broadcast live reports of the Germans annexation of Austria and the occupation of Paris. Unlike other foreign correspondents, Shirer never believed the Nazis and was the first to warn the world of the danger that lay ahead. After the war, Shirer penned the classic The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, published in 1960. Although he left behind diaries of his war years, this is the first biography of the maverick reporter who continues to inspire fleets of journalists and historians. Synopsis:When William L. Shirer agreed to start up the Berlin bureau of Edward R. Murrow’s CBS News in the 1930s, he quickly became both the most trusted and most determined reporter in all of Europe. He did not fall for the Nazi propaganda, as some of his esteemed colleagues did, and fought against both Nazi censorship and American disdain for his relentless tactics. He warned of the consequences if the Nazis were not stopped, all the while developing close ties to the party’s elite and maintaining contacts whose allegiances could not be won by other reporters, thus obtaining a unique perspective of the party’s rise to power. From the Night of the Long Knives to his removal at bayonet-point from the broadcast center in Vienna during Anschluss, and from the front lines of Germany’s invasion of France to his coverage of the Nuremberg trials and the Nazis’ demise, Shirer redefined the importance of journalism. Here, thanks to Steve Wick’s unique access to Shirer’s archives—including never-before-seen journals and letters—The Long Night fleshes out the details of the maverick journalist’s adventures in Europe, delivering a new, rich perspective on the Third Reich
About the AuthorSteve Wick is a senior editor at Newsday and the author of Bad Company: Drugs, Hollywood and the Cotton Club Murder, among others. He has been a journalist for 30 years and has won dozens of writing and reporting awards, including sharing in two Pulitzer Prizes for local reporting. Table of ContentsPrologue: Leaving Berlin The Writer His Luck Holds The American Correspondent The Long Train Home His Luck Holds Again Gestapo at the Train Station Berlin and the World Tauentzienstrasse The Watering Hole Ten - The dirty liar P*** On his Grave Bad Writing Get Out of the Country Drinks at the Adlon The Jewish Doctor Clearing the Mountains The Photographer Sigrid Wakes Him Up Lies as Thick as Grass The Germans are Out of Their Minds Riding in Staff Cars War of the Worlds A Long Train Ride to Tess Crowded Buses A Warning from a Friend Postscript: The Ruins Author's Note Acknowledgements Bibliography Endnotes
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