The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

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Book cover

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by journalist William L. Shirer was the first definitive history of Nazi Germany in English.

Shirer, a radio reporter for CBS, covered Germany for many years until December 1940, when increasing Nazi censorship of his broadcasts made work impossible for him. This 1,245 page book, first published in 1960 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. and still in print, colors its historically accurate information with denunciation of the evils of Nazism and tyranny.

The book is based largely on the captured documents of the Third Reich, including the diaries of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and General Franz Halder. Other sources include confidential speeches, conference reports, taped transcripts of telephone conversations, as well as Shirer's personal recollections during the six years he reported on the Third Reich as a journalist.

At the time the book was written, only a part of the diaries of Goebbels was known. Other documents have been discovered and many documents have since become available from Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The book was adapted into a television program for the ABC network in 1966. It was one of the first programs to be marketed as a miniseries.

1 Criticism
2 Publication
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Criticism

The book has been met with criticism from the scholarly community. The general complaint is that the title lacks the level of scholarly attention, use of sources, and quality of writing neccessary to qualify it as a "scholarly" or "academic" work. Nonetheless, they accept it as a usable popular history or a passable narrative for the beginner.

A number of historians have expressed opinions in this vein:

"It is too long and cumbersome...it is not sufficiently scholarly nor sufficiently well written to satisfy more academic demands. Mr Shirer, has, however compiled a manual ...which will certainly prove useful. " - Elizabeth Wiskemann, International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 37, No. 2. (Apr., 1961), pp. 234-235

"Shirer's history of the Third Reich is woefully inadequate. Shirer's monumental narrative does not rise above the most commonplace level of understanding. The inadequacies of Shirer's account could be dismissed...if his book had not found and enormous audience. Shirer's [writing] facility.. does not compensate for this book's essential weakness as history." - William O. Shanahan, The American Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 1. (Oct., 1962), pp. 126-128.