Undoubtedly still the definitive single-volume history of the period, still a classic in every sense.

Some parts of the narrative haven’t aged well and show signs of the times when Shirer was writing in the late 50s; other parts have been exploded by new scholarship; and still others ignited controversies that still rage (for example Shirer’s basing the roots of National Socialism in thew mainstream German philosophical tradition). But bearing all that in mind, it’s easy to feel the immediacy of his connection with the events he describes. If that clouds his objectivity in some case it’s worth it for the sense of place and time that this book provides, differently to all the other varied histories of the Third Reich.

5/5. Finished Saturday 9 May, 2020.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)