Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

For August we are reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer. This is an in-depth look at Nazi Germany. The Third Reich lasted from 1933-1945. (The book is long at over 1000 pages. If you decide to read this one, please do not feel pressured to finish it during the month of August. Take your time. Threads stay open here for a few months and then are simply moved to the archive nonfiction section.)

From GR: No other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich. When the bitter war was over, and before the Nazis could destroy their files, the Allied demand for unconditional surrender produced an almost hour-by-hour record of the nightmare empire built by Adolph Hitler. This record included the testimony of Nazi leaders and of concentration camp inmates, the diaries of officials, transcripts of secret conferences, army orders, private letters—all the vast paperwork behind Hitler's drive to conquer the world.

The famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer, who had watched and reported on the Nazis since 1925, spent five and a half years sifting through this massive documentation. The result is a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind.

Here is the complete story of Hitler's empire, one of the most important stories ever told, written by one of the men best equipped to write it.

This worldwide bestseller has been acclaimed as the definitive book on Nazi Germany; it is a classic work.

Please keep discussion of this book respectful, as topics found within the book or related to it could be sensitive for some readers/members. Thank you!

I read this as a teenager as I’ve always been fascinated by the Second World War. Like many people my age, both my grandfathers and all my great uncles fought in “The Big One”. I’m sure I didn’t get much out of it way back then so I’m excited to open it up again. Looking forward to it. I still have the same copy that I had all those years ago. It smells like a dorm room.

This looks great but it's SO long!

It’s definitely a commitment.

Book Nerd wrote: "This looks great but it's SO long!"

As I often tell children at the library when they see a long book that they're interested in reading: every book is read the same way - 1 page at a time. :)

Samantha wrote: "Book Nerd wrote: "This looks great but it's SO long!"

As I often tell children at the library when they see a long book that they're interested in reading: every book is read the same way - 1 page..."
Yeah, one page at a time. For a looong time. Hopefully I can read it some day.

I read this fifty years ago and was probably too young even at age twenty-five to appreciate the full scope of its contents.

Now, at seventy-five, it is with a renewed sense of horror that I read of all the decisions taken so casually and so easily that destroyed all of us and our world.

But - and a very big but - it's a long book and I should like to finish it in this lifetime!

Samantha wrote: "For August we are reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer. This is an in-depth look at Nazi Germany. The Third Reic..."

I read this book for the first time when I was in Jr. High in Iowa. It had a profound effect on me and after that, I would reread it about once every other year or so. It is a tad dated now although much less than you would expect. It probably helps that the Author was there as a reporter at the time. So it carries an apt degree of freshness in the writing. For those with any sort of interest in WWII, it is generally considered a must-read.