Berlin Diary, William L. Shirer
Berlin Diary, William L. Shirer
List: $27.95 | Sale: $19.57
Club: $13.97

Berlin Diary
The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 19341941

Author: William L. Shirer

Narrator: Tom Weiner

Unabridged: 16 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/20/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, History


Synopsis

By the acclaimed journalist and New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this daybyday eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is the private, personal, utterly revealing journal of a great foreign correspondent. CBS radio broadcaster William L. Shirer was virtually unknown in 1940 when he decided there might be a book in the diary he had kept in Europe during the 1930sspecifically those sections dealing with the collapse of the European democracies and the rise of Nazi Germany. Shirer was the only Western correspondent in Vienna on March 11, 1938, when the German troops marched in and took over Austria, and he alone reported the surrender by France to Germany on June 22, 1940, even before the Germans reported it. The whole time, Shirer kept a record of events, many of which could not be publicly reported because of censorship by the Germans. In December 1940, Shirer learned that the Germans were building a case against him for espionage, an offense punishable by death. Fortunately, Shirer escaped and was able to take most of his diary with him. Berlin Diary first appeared in 1941, and the timing was perfect. The energy, the passion, and the electricity in it were palpable. The book was an instant success, and it became the frame of reference against which thoughtful Americans judged the rush of events in Europe. It exactly matched journalist to event: the right reporter in the right place at the right time. It stood, and still stands, as so few books have ever done, a pure act of journalistic witness.

About William L. Shirer

William L. Shirer (1904–1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly works for more than fifty years and was #1 New York Times bestseller. Originally a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the International News Service, he was the first reporter hired by Edward R. Murrow for what would become a CBS radio team of journalists known as “Murrow’s Boys.” He reported from Berlin for the Universal News Service and for CBS on the rise of the Nazis, and he covered their fall as a war correspondent. Out of these reports grew his other New York Times bestsellers Berlin Diary, The Nightmare Years, End of a Berlin Diary, Midcentury Journey, and The Collapse of the Third Republic. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich sold more copies for the Book-of-the-Month Club than any other book in the club’s history.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on October 25, 2016

Just as I was finishing Neil MacGregor's engaging, "Germany: Memories of a Nation," a little voice reminded me that it was about time for a reread of William Shirer's classic, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," while another voice immediately scolded me for not having read his "Berlin Diary 193......more

Goodreads review by Mara on September 01, 2020

A Personal Preamble Reading William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich rocked my world. At the time, I hadn't read many historical tomes, and it swept me away with its sheer scope in addition to the material covered. When I read Eric Larson's In the Garden of Bea......more

Goodreads review by Lewis on May 16, 2018

Shirer's diary is a unique window into what was known and believed at the time in Nazi Germany ... I am currently focusing on the 1939-41 period when Shirer, in Berlin, had access to many sources and was able to put information together in a series of brilliant reporting, analyses and conjectures. In......more