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gdollinger's review against another edition
4.0
Reading about 1940 in 2020. Temptation to compare Nazi Germany to Trumpian USA. Trump is no Hitler. He more of a Goring. A fat incompetent bully. Fox and OAN media are similar to Nazi media.
see p 539 “..in the present totalitarian atmosphere, where words have lost all meaning, anything becomes true merely because the controlled press says so.”
America Firstism doesn’t far well in comparison either.
p. 583 . “..it means more of the milk and honey of this world for them. That it will of necessarily be obtained at the expense of other peoples — Czechs, Poles, Scandinavias, French - does bot bother the Germanin the least. On this he has no moral scruples whatsoever”
see p 539 “..in the present totalitarian atmosphere, where words have lost all meaning, anything becomes true merely because the controlled press says so.”
America Firstism doesn’t far well in comparison either.
p. 583 . “..it means more of the milk and honey of this world for them. That it will of necessarily be obtained at the expense of other peoples — Czechs, Poles, Scandinavias, French - does bot bother the Germanin the least. On this he has no moral scruples whatsoever”
pristinesavant's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
tense
fast-paced
4.5
rumaho76's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.75
This is the diary of a US foreign correspondent during the run up to and the first couple of years of WWII. Reading about someone who had a close up view of the main figures and how hen dealt with, for example, censorship was fascinating
notmignon's review against another edition
4.0
This is a long book (about 600 pages) with which I had a love-hate relationship. Despite this - Overall, the perspective was amazing - an American correspondent who had been living in Europe total of 15 years, had access to the power and much information about what was going on as Hitlers came to power and expanded the "Reich", and had the critical thoughts to put things together. He was censored during his normal correspondence with America by the propaganda machine, so he could never report the whole truth or even parts of it at times, but he kept a journal detailing as much as possible about how this happened.
Reading this today, paired with and compared against the moves (or attempts of our current president to discount the media and further divide the country, I become very concerned and am thinking of taking up a similar journal project
Reading this today, paired with and compared against the moves (or attempts of our current president to discount the media and further divide the country, I become very concerned and am thinking of taking up a similar journal project
opal360's review against another edition
4.0
Truly fascinating. I was interested particularly in Shirer's observations on how Hitler enthralled the masses, and on the effects of living with a media that lied continually. Published in 1941 but more than just a "period piece".
the_lilypad's review against another edition
3.0
William Shirer made the choice to keep a journal to chronicle his time in Germany as a broadcaster as world war 2 got started.
At times this book plodded along slowly, which makes sense because there was a lot of waiting. Is today going to be the day the war began?
And then of course there were the similarities between what’s going on now in the US to the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany.
At times this book plodded along slowly, which makes sense because there was a lot of waiting. Is today going to be the day the war began?
And then of course there were the similarities between what’s going on now in the US to the propaganda machine of Nazi Germany.
mercourier's review against another edition
4.0
Series of journal entries comprising the rise to power of Hitler and part of WW2. An interesting way to understand the war through the eyes of an American war correspondent.
douglasjsellers's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting read of the day to day view of the rise of Hitler. I originally read this thinking that I would compare the rise of Hitler to the rise of Trump. I wondered how many parallels there are? Ultimately Hitler, though evil, came across as very good at getting people behind him through success and creating a cult of personality and using that to establish an authoritarian state with him at the head. Contrast this with Trump who is just a clown that hopes rash action and lack of planning will lead to success. So in that sense, I felt better about the world at the end of this book.