William Shirer - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Pros: Some insightful chapters, Shirer's first-hand knowledge

Cons: Some chapters a bit long, crams all of WWII into the last section

The Bottom Line: Shirer's 1,400 page-long opus is a good introduction to the topic, but should be supplemented by reading later books.

Review: In 1960, just 15 years after the Allied victory over Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, Simon & Schuster published The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer's huge one-volume examination of one of the most repressive and murderous regimes ...