William L. Shirer (1904–1993)

The deed is done. And it only took me 5 months. Stepping back from the morass of Nazi minutia I've been swimming in, it's a pretty good book overall. Hitler's childhood and family backstory is written very well and sucked me in with its attention to detail. And then that detail was given to the buildup to war and the machinations of war and every. single. conversation. Hitler and his generals had on a daily basis and I wanted to pull my head off from boredom. But I get why all that detail is, you know, vital to the historical record.

The chapters that dealt with Nazi atrocities were very difficult to get through emotionally but I'm glad I read them. We should all have to read them.

I learned a hell of a lot from this book. And I am very glad I am not reading it anymore.… (mehr)

I began reading this tome last year as many began to compare then-candidate Donald Trump to Hitler and referred to him as a Facist. My goal was to understand the parallels and contrasts between the two men.

First, regarding the book itself: it's a terrific detailed account from someone who lived in Nazi Germany and referenced an enormous amount of historical records to produce this work. It was long, and yes occasionally it was a grind, and it was well worth the time to read. Some of it even feels a bit rushed, like there's more to dig into, but then how do you tell the tale of one of the most important events in the history of the Western world from Hitler's youth to the Reich's end in a form that at least approaches a digestible length?

And now, a few words about the comparisons to Donald Trump. The Nazi war machine and its successes at world domination, as well as the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the party and the German people are well out of the reach for comparisons (for now anyway). The sheer level of brutality and devastation leveled by Hitler's Reich stand out as something we need to remember is part of the reason (or maybe the entire reason) why Nazi Germany is so reviled by the World's population. There is no comparison to that in America at this time; we're not at that level.

However, there are several concerning and fair comparisons that can be made between the Nazi leader and the man who is now America's president. One is their intense level of egomania. When Hitler was about to attack Russia and attempted to drive into Moscow, Shirer writes, "... the one-time Vienna waif regarded himself the greatest conqueror the world had ever seen. Egomania, that fatal disease of all conquerors, was taking hold." Trump's outlandish self-centered narcissism boils to a level of egomania unseen at the top of American politics perhaps ever, especially when he tells crowds, "I alone can fix this" and spews his self-aggrandizing midnight tweets.

Shirer also references Hitler's "violent nature following its momentary impulses," and we are all now watching a man driven perhaps entirely by impulse of a violent nature wield the highest power in our republic. Also, both men thrived and came to power by harnessing nationalist and racist emotions in a population that felt it had once been great and was now bitter about the way the rest of the world was treating it.

And lastly, I'm particularly concerned by the stark parallels between Goebbels' propaganda ministry and the Trump team's disregard for truth and facts, preferring instead to spread "Alternative Facts" as Kellyanne Conway put it a few weeks back. In this book, Shirer writes about the headline of a daily paper he bought on a train during the run-up to Hitler's invasion of Poland: "'WARSAW THREATENS BOMBARDMENT OF DANZIG - UNBELIEVABLE AGITATION OF THE POLISH ARCHMADNESS!' You ask: But the German people can't possibly believe these lies? Then you talk to them. So many do." The countless lies of Trump the candidate and now Trump the president, and the parroting of these lies by not only his surrogates but average American people, is quite frankly terrifying when compared to the Nazi aptitude for twisting or utterly replacing the truth with what one might call "Alternative Facts."

I hear sales of George Orwell's 1984 are on the rise. For those with the time and patience at this moment in American history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich should also be on their list.… (mehr)