A renowned journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer chronicles his own life story--in a personal history that parallels the greater historical events for which he served as a witness. In the first of a three-volume series, Shirer tells of his early life, growing up in Cedar Rapids and later serving as a new reporter in Paris. In this surprisingly intimate account, Shirer details his youthful challenges, setbacks, rebellions, and insights into the world around him. He offers personal accounts of his friendships with notable people including Isadora Duncan, Ernest Hemingway, and Sinclair Lewis.
This fascinating personal account also provides an illuminating look into a lost pre-World War II era--and is notable as much for its historical value as for its autobiographical detail. Ideal for anyone fascinated by this period in history.
The third in a three-volume series, this edition chronicles the life of noted journalist, historian, and author William Shirer-a witness to the rise of the Third Reich. Here, Shirer recounts his return to Berlin after its defeat, his shocking firing by CBS News, and his final visit to Paris sixty years after he first lived there as a cub reporter in the 1920s. It paints a bittersweet picture of his final decades, friends lost to old age, and a changing world.
More personal than the first two volumes, this final installment takes an unflinching look at the author's own struggles after World War II-and his vindication after the publication of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, his most acclaimed work. It also provides intimate details of his often-troubled marriage. This book gives readers a surprising and moving account of the last years of a true historian-and an important witness to history.
When the Third Reich fell, it fell swiftly. The Nazis had little time to cover up their memos, their letters, or their diaries. William L. Shirer’s definitive book on the Third Reich uses these unique sources. Combined with his personal experience with the Nazis, living through the war as an international correspondent, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich not only earned Shirer a National Book Award but is recognized as one of the most important and authoritative books about the Third Reich and Nazi Germany ever written. The diaries of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as well as evidence and other testimony gained at the Nuremberg Trials could not have found more artful hands.
Shirer gives a clear, detailed and well-documented account of how it was that Adolf Hitler almost succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has become one of the most authoritative books on one of mankind’s darkest hours. Shirer focuses on 1933 to 1945 in clear detail. Here is a worldwide bestseller that also tells the true story of the Holocaust, often in the words of the men who helped plan and conduct it. It is a classic by any measure.
The book has been translated into twelve languages and was adapted as a television miniseries, broadcast by ABC in 1968. This first ever e-book edition is published on the 50th anniversary of this iconic work.