Synopses & Reviews
Hailed as “one of the most important works of history of our time” (The New York Times), this definitive chronicle of Hitlers rise to power is back in hardcover with a new introductory essay by Ron Rosenbaum (Explaining Hitler and How the End Begins) commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of its National Book Award win. Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirers monumental study of Hitlers Nazi Empire has been a perennial international bestseller. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, this is a vital and enduring classic—a superbly written, unsurpassed record of the last centurys darkest hours.
Review
"The New York Times Book Review A splendid work of scholarship, objective in method, sound in judgment, inescapable in its conclusions." --Hugh Trevor-Roper
Review
"One of the most spectacular stories ever told." -John Gunther
Review
"A monumental work, a grisly and thrilling story." --Theodore H. White
Review
"One of the most important works of history of our time." -Orville Prescott The New York Times
Synopsis
Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer's monumental study of Hitler's German Empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of this century's blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 1185-1195)
About the Author
William L. Shirer has had a distinguished career as foreign correspondent, news commentator, and historian of the contemporary world. He reported from Berlin for the Universal News Service and for CBS on the rise of the Nazis and he covered their all as a war correspondent. Out of these reports grew his best-sellers
Berlin Diary and
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which has sold more copies for the Book-of-the-Month Club than any other book in the club's history.
Shirer is the author of many other best-selling books, including The Collapse of the Third Republic and an autobiography, Twentieth Century Journey: A Memoir of a Life and the Times, composed of three volumes -- The Start: 1904-1930, The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940, and A Native's Return: 1945-1988. He is at work on a new book about the last two weeks of Tolstoy's life.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS Foreword
Book One: THE RISE OF ADOLF HITLER
1. Birth of the Third Reich
2. Birth of the Nazi Party
3. Versailles, Weimar and the Beer Hall Putsch
4. The Mind of Hitler and the Roots of the Third Reich
Book Two: TRIUMPH AND CONSOLIDATION
5. The Road to Power: 1925-31
6. The Last Days of the Republic: 1931-33
7. The Nazification of Germany: 1933-34
8. Life in the Third Reich: 1933-37
Book Three: THE ROAD TO WAR
9. The First Steps: 1934-37
10. Strange, Fateful Interlude: The Fall of Blomberg, Fritsch, Neurath and Schacht
11. Anschluss: The Rape of Austria
12. The Road to Munich
13. Czechoslovakia Ceases to Exist
14. The Turn of Poland
15. The Nazi -- Soviet Pact
16. The Last Days of Peace
17. The Launching of World War II
Book Four: WAR: EARLY VICTORIES AND THE TURNING POINT
18. The Fall of Poland
19. Sitzkrieg in the West
20. The Conquest of Denmark and Norway
21. Victory in the West
22. Operation Sea Lion: The Thwarted Invasion of Britain
23. Barbarossa: The Turn of Russia
24. A Turn of the Tide
25. The Turn of the United States
26. The Great Turning Point: 1942 -- Stalingrad and El Alamein
Book Five: BEGINNING OF THE END
27. The New Order
28. The Fall of Mussolini
29. The Allied Invasion of Western Europe and the Attempt to Kill Hitler
Book Six: THE FALL OF THE THIRD REICH
30. The Conquest of Germany 31. Goetterdaemmerung: The Last Days of the Third Reich
Afterword
Notes
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index