American journalist and author William L. Shirer was a correspondent for six years in Nazi Germany--and had a front-row seat to Hitler's mounting influence. His most definitive work on the subject, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, is a riveting account defined by first-person experience interviewing Hitler, watching his impassioned speeches, and living in a country transformed by war and dictatorship.

Shirer was originally commissioned to write The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler for a young adult audience. This account loses none of the immediacy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich--capturing Hitler's ascendence from obscurity, the horror of Nazi Germany's mass killings, and the paranoia and insanity that marked the führer's downfall. This book is by no means simplified--and is sure to appeal to adults as well as young people with an interest in World War II history.

"For nearly 100 years William L Shirer has spoken to us of fascism, Nazis, and Hitler . . . [He] tells the unvarnished truth as he experienced it . . . I figured this school-type book wasn't going to tell me anything new. But when I started reading, I realized that I wasn't reading for the facts anymore. I listened to his story and heard the urgency in his voice: a voice from nearly 60 years ago telling us the truth about today." --Daily Kos