Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Over the years I have read quite a few books about Germany between the wars, such as Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s by Otto Friedrich and Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941 by William L. Shirer. In addition I have read many books about Hitler and the Nazis and World War II, as well as three voluminous (and excellent) biographies (Toland, Fest, and Kershaw) of Hitler himself. Naturally I also read (when I was a junior in high school) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by Shirer. (It cost $10.00 when first published and it took me a while to save up that much money but I did and I got the book.) In my opinion, it's still the best overall history of Nazi Germany ever written. But these books are, of necessity, generalized and they are primarily concerned with political history, military history, and/or economic history. There have also been some books written from Germans individuals' points of view, such as the two Saul Friedlander books Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939 and The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 as well as those by Victor Klemperer I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941 and I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years. But these are told, obviously, from the German (Jewish) point of view. What about the American point of view? While there were many Americans living and working in Germany during the Weimar Republic and after, other than "Berlin Diary," (one man's point of view) I had read no books about these other Americans' varied views about actual life there during the Republic and during its collapse and replacement by the Nazi dictatorship. Recently, Erik Larson wrote an excellent book In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin about the first US Ambassador to Nazi Germany, William Dodd and his family. This book is superb reading material (and I highly recommend it to you) but, concentrating on the Dodd family who came to Germany only in 1933, it does not go into much detail about the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during the 1920s. Andrew Nagorski's new Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power is the first book I have ever seen which discusses MANY individual Americans' impressions of this rise and later consolidation. Though the book itself is written with the benefit of hindsight, the quotations from many people - including William L. Shirer, Howard K. Smith, other American correspondents and broadcasters, William Dodd, Truman Smith and his wife, and other American diplomats, many other "ordinary" Americans who happened either to be living there or just visiting, and even Ernst 'Putzi' Hanfstaengl and his wife, as well as a few other Nazi "insiders" - all of the quotations were written at the time, in other words, WITHOUT the benefit of hindsight. These writings are taken from diaries, articles, and books (both published and unpublished). It is the "you are there" feeling which makes this book so valuable. Essentially social history, it shows the day-by-day rise of the Nazis and their attainment and consolidation of power in what had been the most civilized country in the world, as viewed by Americans living there - some in high positions, but mostly ordinary people. I'm certain that nothing like this has ever been written before. None of the above would be of much use to the average reader if the writing itself were mediocre and pedantic. Fortunately, this is NOT the case. Andrew Nagorski is a writer who knows how to tell a story and who knows how to organize the varied (and often contradictory) published and unpublished writings of the actual authors, both their writings at the time as well as their writings after the fact (and sometimes they tried to 'clarify' - that is revise - what they had actually written and thought at the time). His writing is both very interesting and very informative. Some Americans tried to ignore the situation altogether. Some were either "neutral" or pro-Nazi. And some were most definitely anti-Nazi. Some started off as one but. through observation and sometimes personal experiences, became the other. But all of their writings are extremely interesting and very valuable. I personally thank Andrew Nagorski for undertaking this monumental effort. I had trouble putting the book down! I think anyone who is interested in this facet of 20th Century history will also find this book to be an excellent resource and good reading. There is a voluminous and useful Notes section as well as an excellent Bibliography. I give this book my highest recommendation.