Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

The fiftieth anniversary edition of the National Book Award-winning bestseller that is the definitive study of Adolf Hitler, the rise of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and World War II. This special edition now features a new introduction by Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler and How the End Begins. No other powerful empire ever bequeathed such mountains of evidence about its birth and destruction as the Third Reich. When the bitter war was over, and before the Nazis could destroy their files, the Allied demand for unconditional surrender produced an almost hour-by-hour record of the nightmare empire built by Adolph Hitler. This record included the testimony of Nazi leaders and of concentration camp inmates, the diaries of officials, transcripts of secret conferences, army orders, private letters--all the vast paperwork behind Hitler's drive to conquer the world. The famed foreign correspondent and historian William L. Shirer, who had watched and reported on the Nazis since 1925, spent five and a half years sifting through this massive documentation. The result is a monumental study that has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of one of the most frightening chapters in the history of mankind. Here is the complete story of Hitler's empire, one of the most important stories ever told, written by one of the men best equipped to write it. This worldwide bestseller has been acclaimed as the definitive book on Nazi Germany; it is a classic work.

""The New York Times Book Review" A splendid work of scholarship, objective in method, sound in judgment, inescapable in its conclusions." --Hugh Trevor-Roper, "A monumental work, a grisly and thrilling story." --Theodore H. White, "One of the most important works of history of our time." -Orville Prescott "The New York Times", "One of the most spectacular stories ever told." -John Gunther, Hugh Trevor-Roper "The New York Times Book Review" A splendid work of scholarship, objective in method, sound in judgment, inescapable in its conclusions.

William L. Shirer was an American journalist and historian. He became known for his broadcasts on CBS from the German capital of Berlin through the first year of World War II. Ron Rosenbaum is the bestselling author of Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars and has written or edited six other books. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. He writes a column for Slate and lives in New York City.