William L. Shirer,
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9781483078632. Audio read by Grover Gardner.
Genre: history
Subgenre: World War II, Nazi Germany
Format: audio e-book
Source: Overdrive system provided by Madison County (KY) Public Library
This is one of those big books that I have always been curious about reading, but for one reason or another I never got to reading it. With many people making comparisons between the current "Hard Times" in the United States and Nazi Germany, I figured it was a good time to take a look at this and see if any of those comparisons could be true or accurate or not. Plus, I found the book in audio format, which allowed me to read it while doing other work. The book takes us from the rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler to the Nuremberg Trials and their result.
For starters, it is interesting to see the thinking of historians at the time of the book. The author, a journalist, starts his foreword by describing some of the many sources the author draws upon to write this history. Shirer found some people thought it was "too early" to write this history. Keep
in mind the book was published in 1960. The war ended in 1945. He goes on to emphasize there is no fictionalization, "no part of imagination." He
draws on primary sources, witness accounts, and his experiences at the
time. If he has to speculate or is missing a piece, this will be
clearly identified. He also acknowledges that his interpretations may be
disputed. It is also interesting to point out that historians in his time complained about the book because Shirer himself was not a historian. They also complained because he did use primary sources such as witness accounts. Pompous historians of his time claimed to write history you relied on previous reputable historians and secondary sources. I admit I found that a bit laughable, especially because today even for basic research and synthesis papers, students are encouraged to use primary sources as much as possible. Here in my college, we take students to our archives department so they can learn how to use primary sources in research. I found it hard to imagine that was not an essential element of writing history back then. I think historians back then were just cranky that Shirer wrote a book in their "territory."
Shirer's book covers a lot of ground, and it presents a lot of detail. Much of the detail presented is minutiae, so the book can get a bit heavy at times when reading. Once or twice I did have to back up a segment to listen again because some small detail passed on by. On the other hand, there were some details that I probably could have skipped and not missed much. The book is strong in its great attention to detail, but that attention to detail also often makes it a very dry read. It is not the most engaging book, but as you read you get the sense it is an important book and a book worth taking a look. I am glad to have read it, but I do not think I will be rereading it any time soon. If nothing else, this book may encourage readers to seek out further reading on the topic.
For the rest of this review, I would like to highlight some passages and parts of the book I found interesting and add some thoughts.
After the foreword, Shirer takes a bit of time going over Adolf Hitler's ancestry. Had a certain
ancestor not legitimized the son who would be Hitler's father, his last
name would have been different, and even comical-sounding.
In Chapter 1, Shirer looks at Hitler and his reading habits. As a librarian, I always find reading habits of people to be interesting. In this case, Shirer quotes from Hitler's own book,
Mein Kampf. I read the quote, and I have to say, if it was not Hitler saying it, some folks might be more receptive of it. The quote also echoes other writers who wrote prescriptively how to read well. Anyhow, here is the passage:
"I know people who read enormously whom I would not describe as well read. True, they possess a mass of knowledge, but their brain is unable to organize and register the material they have taken in. On the other hand, a man who possesses the art of correct reading will instinctively and immediately will perceive every thing which in his opinion is worth permanently remembering, either because it is suited to his purpose or generally worth knowing." -- Hitler, from Mein Kampf, quote by Shirer.
Shirer then points out that many of Hitler's ideas were not even original. He picked them up from various thinkers and politicians of the 20th century. Here we can note for readers interested in where Hitler got his ideas from the following: Whitman's
Hitler's American Model (yes, Adolf Hitler did admire U.S. racist ideas and sought to emulate them) and Black's
War Against the Weak (about the U.S. eugenics movement, which Hitler also found very inspiring). When it comes to racism, bigotry, and waging war on the poor and weak, the U.S. was a pioneer in those endeavors, and as we can see, an inspiration to tyrants. (By the way, this is not just Hitler. The U.S. has been notorious not only in inspiring tyrants but even training them to be better tyrants. For instance, look up a little something called
The School of the Americas sometime. Link to Wikipedia for convenience, but there are plenty of other sources out there) Chapter 4 looks further at Nietzsche and other philosophers; it is a bit on
the long side and slow reading. Yet this is the thinking that helped to shape
Hitler, or at least the advisors that advised Hitler. These were
fashionable ideas of the time by the way, and they were fashionable ideas in and out of Germany.
While we are it, Hitler also illustrates how the "wrong" reading can basically work to
confirm biases and prejudices, such as him in early days immersing
himself in the anti-Semitic literature popular at the time. This example often leads me to be skeptical of librarians and other literacy advocates who claim that people, as long as they are reading, they should read everything and anything. Hitler read a lot of the "everything and anything" of his time. His problem, which is the problem of many folks today, is that he read a lot of hate and bigotry literature. This is not unlike somebody today in the U.S. who only reads and listens to right wing propaganda from authors like Limbaugh and Coulter and a steady diet of Fox News and InfoWars. Most if not all of those folks lack any critical thinking skills, so they are easy prey. It is not easy to withstand constant propaganda and misinformation. Even a man as educated and smart as Shirer had difficulties when constantly exposed to Nazi propaganda during his time in Germany. He managed to survive and see truth, but it took a lot of work. He later describes this in the book:
"Though I listened to the BBC and other broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials, and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one's inherent distrust of what I learned from Nazi sources, a steady over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one's mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive the dread consequences of a regime's calculated and incessant propaganda." --Chapter 8.
This still survives today in the United States, especially now in the "Hard Times" where the administration constantly lies and misinforms and has plenty of channels to spread the propaganda. The era of "fake news" is not really new, but it has certainly flourished in the U.S. in recent times even if the term as used by many of its advocates is not exactly accurate, but then again, that is part of the distortion. All I can say is decent librarians and educators have their work cut out for them in these times.
Speaking of Hitler's book, author also says that had people read Hitler's book early on,
especially people outside Germany including other nations' leaders,
perhaps things would have turned out differently. After all, Hitler
spelled out exactly everything he intended to do and do with armed
conflict. Looking at history, dictators and tyrants often make their intentions very explicit and clear early on, yet for some reason people refuse to take them seriously until it is too late. It is a lesson people continually fail to learn.
Moving along, Shirer looks at Hitler's rise to power. It was not a straight up smooth rise, yet he still managed to rise in power. Readers may recall the putsch, a failure, that still made Hitler a national figure. Also,
the jail sentence he got for basically staging a coup and treason was
light, so it sent message that any consequences if caught would be light. This is a
lesson that needs to be learned, and that is traitors (as well as
bigots, white supremacist terrorists) do not deserve light sentences but
the harshest punishment possible. A lesson the U.S. clearly has failed
to learn. By the way, looking at it today the putsch may seem laughable.
In addition, many of Hitler's inner circle were unsavory characters to put it mildly.
Even when other Nazi party members wanted Hitler to get rid of them,
Hitler defended them and kept them on in part due to their loyalty to
him and in part because as long as they were useful (to him) they were
worth keeping. This is eerily reminiscent of the Pendejo In Chief and
the people he surrounds himself with including liars, cheats, con men,
etc.
In addition, people did enable Hitler; we cannot deny their part in helping him rise to power. Chapter 8 looks at life in Germany from 1933 to 1937, a time the author
lived there and observed. He remarks how the people did not seem to mind
their loss of civil liberties and rights, the barbarism that arose, and
the extreme regimentation (even more so than usual). In some ways,
chilling to see some of this in the United States of today. For example, the fact that there is a debate in the U.S. whether children of immigrants and refugees belong in cages is a chilling things to see, and it does invoke echoes of the past. Then again, even during this time, tourists did go to Germany quite a bit, and could
go anywhere (except concentration camps and military installations),
study anything. It seemed Germany had nothing to hide. And while tourists came and Germany "charmed" the world, Germans were
basically doing their best to erase Jewish people by legislation and
then terror. Naturally, outsiders did not really see this (or if they
saw any of it, turned a blind eye).By the way, to learn more about travelers and tourists during this historical time, there is a new book out by Julia Boyd,
Travelers in the Third Reich. It was
recently reviewed in
The Washington Post.
In his afterword, author speaks a bit about the book's reception. He had been concerned a book as long as this, with so many footnotes, and expensive (at the time) would not sell. He was also concerned that the subject would not be interesting. The book did attract a good amount of readership, which surprised the author, including sales via Book of the Month Club. Interesting, some reviewers put him down for not being a "historian who teaches history" as I mentioned above. As for the Germans, at the time they panned the book for the most part (they could not confront their own history when the book came out). However, he also got positive reviews. He ends on a note of skepticism whether the Germans have changed or not. He does note atom bombs have made conquerors like Hitler obsolete. On a side note, we know now that Germany has changed and progressed.
Overall, the book was OK. It was good but not great. It is hard to rate because on the one hand, it is a bit of hard and often very dry reading. This is not a book people today will rush to pick up. Yet it is an important book and a good look at a dark time in history from someone who was there. Additionally, in reading this I can see some parallels to the U.S. and the Hard Times today. Sure, things are not as extreme, but the potential is easily very much there. This book offers plenty of warnings, but the question is whether people will be willing to heed those warnings and act before it is too late.
2 out of 5 stars.
