The author of the international bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers a personal account of life in Nazi Germany at the start of WWII.

By the late 1930s, Adolf Hitler, FÃ"hrer of the Nazi Party, had consolidated power in Germany and was leading the world into war. A young foreign correspondent was on hand to bear witness.

More than two decades prior to the publication of his acclaimed history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer was a journalist stationed in Berlin. During his years in the Nazi capital, he kept a daily personal diary, scrupulously recording everything he heard and saw before being forced to flee the country in 1940.

Berlin Diary is Shirerâ s first-hand account of the momentous events that shook the world in the mid-twentieth century, from the annexation of Austria and Czechoslovakia to the fall of Poland and France. A remarkable personal memoir of an extraordinary time, it chronicles the authorâ s thoughts and experiences while living in the shadow of the Nazi beast. Shirer recalls the surreal spectacles of the Nuremberg rallies, the terror of the late-night bombing raids, and his encounters with members of the German high command while he was risking his life to report to the world on the atrocities of a genocidal regime.

At once powerful, engrossing, and edifying, William L. Shirerâ s Berlin Diary is an essential historical record that illuminates one of the darkest periods in human civilization.

A concise and timely account of Hitlerâ sâ and fascismâ sâ rise to power and ultimate defeat, from one of Americaâ s most famous journalists.
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American journalist and author William L. Shirer was a correspondent for six years in Nazi Germanyâ and had a front-row seat to Hitlerâ s mounting influence. His most definitive work on the subject, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, is a riveting account defined by first-person experience interviewing Hitler, watching his impassioned speeches, and living in a country transformed by war and dictatorship.
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Shirer was originally commissioned to write The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler for a young adult audience. This account loses none of the immediacy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reichâ capturing Hitlerâ s ascendence from obscurity, the horror of Nazi Germanyâ s mass killings, and the paranoia and insanity that marked the führerâ s downfall. This book is by no means simplifiedâ and is sure to appeal to adults as well as young people with an interest in World War II history.
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â For nearly 100 years William L Shirer has spoken to us of fascism, Nazis, and Hitler . . . [He] tells the unvarnished truth as he experienced it . . . I figured this school-type book wasnâ t going to tell me anything new. But when I started reading, I realized that I wasnâ t reading for the facts anymore. I listened to his story and heard the urgency in his voice: a voice from nearly 60 years ago telling us the truth about today.â â Daily Kos