Chris Powers

Regarded as the seminal account of Hitler's genocidal Third Reich published for a popular non-fiction audience, this book lives up to its title. From painting the sweeping arc of history to narrative detail and connective commentary weaving the events together, the author's impressive skills as a journalist shine. As an eyewitness to many of the events during his reporting assignments to Berlin and elsewhere in Europe, Shirer offers a priceless view of history authenticated by personal experience. He watched Nazis stream through the Brandenburg Gate by the thousands — as Hitler simultaneously watched in review. Important as history, the book is even more important as a warning today. I first read this book as a high school student, recently returning for my third reading to discover the themes and methods that Donald Trump has so dangerously exploited in his bid to be America's "dictator on Day 1" of a new term. Godwin himself approves of Trump's comparison to Hitler. I shudder as I write this that my own country, in 2024, faces the choice of democracy or fascist control of the most powerful nation on Earth. From demonizing immigrants as "poisoning the blood" of the nation to labeling his opponents as "Communists" and "fascists" (an ideological contradiction) and "vermin," Trump is echoing the words of Adolf Hitler in the most in-your-face way. His methods, including incessant lies and attempting a coup, are all out of Hitler's "Mein Kampf," which Trump apparently kept on his nightstand, according to his first wife, Ivana Trump. There are in Shirer's book some offensive descriptions of some German officials as one-dimensional "homosexuals" and worse, "homosexual perverts," but it would be anachronistic to expect Shirer's own sensibilities to conform to today's more enlightened view, particularly since homosexuality was punishable by death under Nazi law. Yet these homophobic instances in the text are rare annoyances. Shirer's theory that unique cultural underpinnings made Germany susceptible to dictatorship has been ridiculed properly, particularly since it appears that any country can be warped by an amoral cult figure riding the cruelest impulses of its people. Nonetheless, Shirer's conclusions about this don't detract from the story he tells with such engrossing historical accuracy. There is no book about the subject I can recommend more highly — or urgently — than this, especially from the POV of January 1, 2024.