Glady’s Reviews > The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany > Status Update

Reading Shirer's weighty tome is slow going, but we'll worth the effort. Much has been written about the foundations of Nazism; Shirer incorporates multiple primary sources along with his personal observations as a reporter in the midst of the rise of Nazism.

Perhaps reading this is so slow not because of the breadth of scholarship but because of the terrifying parallelism with modern day America.

The foundations of Nazism - its anti-Semitic philosophy and the absolute belief in its righteousness are clearly defined here. It's a slow read but oddly compelling. We know the ending and yet can't help wondering why ordinary people and great thinkers could be so bamboozled by Hitler's lunacy. Shirer incorporates many quotations from primary sources to bolster his arguments.