The Nightmare Years: 1930-40 (20th Century Journey, #2) by William L. Shirer

The Nightmare Years: 1930-40 (20th Century Journey, #2) Reviews

• 
  Jamie

  I really enjoyed this breezy account of life as a foreign correspondent living through the tumult of 1930s Europe, et al. Shirer lived a fascinating life...seemed to be in the right place at the right time and....I think he is adequately objective, given the emotional subject matter.
  
  When I say 'breezy,' I say so only as compared with true scholarly historical accounts....as bloated as the historiography is, I am refreshed by this primary source. As an American reader that has spent a good amount of time overseas, I appreciate Shirer's intellectual honesty....although it can be a bit boorish. He really captures the emotional confusion of a stranger living in a strange land....and returning 'home' to America, only to feel out of place.
  
  I really enjoyed the sometimes harsh appraisals of the whole Nazi leadership, as well as colleagues, diplomats, friends, and pretty much everyone except his wife!
  
  At any rate, I cannot think of a more 'entertaining' read of early Nazism and interwar France than this book.
  
• 
  S.A. Bolich

  This is a good read, and taken for what it is--part of Shirer's memoirs--it is excellent. If you are looking for a dry, straight-up analysis or history of the lead-up to WWII, this isn't it. If you are looking for a first-person, "I wuz there" account from a guy who was lucky enough to be everywhere history was being made in Europe in the 1930s, this is it. He kept a detailed personal diary from which this is drawn, supplemented by much material from the captured Nazi archives and personal interviews and information given him by surviving participants on all sides. He is not shy about expressing his opinion of the people he was observing. This is, after all, his memoir and he is entitled. It covers a lot of the same ground as his "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", which is more of a careful history. I find this one fascinating because it is so very personal, one guy's odyssey into the nightmare that was Nazi Germany. He spent six years watching that cultured country devolved into the most hideous travesty of civilization ever, and mourned its passing. He came in as more or less a neutral observer, a foreign correspondent for more than one major newspaper and later one of the pioneer on-air radio news correspondents for CBS. He left when a) he realized he was no longer impartial and that could not put up with the Nazi censorship of his reporting anymore and b) he was warned that the Nazis were building an espionage case against him, convinced he was passing information out in code (he wasn't). His increasing loathing and fright come through clearly and honestly.
  
  The fact that he was johnny-on-the-spot for so many pivotal moments such as the Anschluss in Austria and the takeover of Czechoslovakia is marvelous. He was, however, taken in by the Germans in Poland, when he reports with a straight face that the Poles had charged tanks with horses. They didn't. The scene he saw of a thousand dead horses and hundreds of dead Polish cavalrymen was staged by the German commander. The Poles had actually charged his infantry and were winning until the tanks arrived. But a good superman admit to losing to guys on horses? Never. In this regard, Shirer's willingness to believe was greatly aided by his disdain for the Poles, whom he believed lived in a political fairyland (perhaps so, but it colored his judgment about everything Polish). He did, however, ably spot when the Germans were attempting to use neutral correspondents to convince the British that invasion was imminent during the Battle of Britain. He refused to broadcast when a couple of his more gullible colleagues did.
  
  Shirer was bright, well-trained, and a true reporter, willing to chase the story wherever it took him and report the facts as he saw them, not as he wanted them to be. When he realized he could not do that, he got out. This is a priceless account from a guy who really did know, meet, or observe nearly all the major players in Germany at that time.
• 
  Nick Black

  Written in the 1980's, well after Shirer's place in journalistic history had been cemented with
  The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Reads largely as an expanded, annotated version of his
  Berlin Diaries, which are at times extensively quoted. Given that some of this material was also reproduced in Rise and Fall, this is the third time reading it for the dedicated Shirerist. This book covers almost the same period as Berlin Diaries (the first fifty pages or so, covering Shirer's early Chicago Tribune work in Kabul, is entirely new), and follows that text fairly closely, primarily adding background regarding the nascent radio broadcasting industry, some gossip about CBS/Hearst affiliates, and a generous helping of leftist hokum that wouldn't have flown in Shirer's earlier, more rigorously journalistic work.
• 
  Charlie Brown

  Actually, I re-read this book, which I do periodically in order to remind myself of the whirlwind that swept Europe and Asia in the 1930s.
  
  In the early thirties Shirer traveled and reported events in India and Afganistan. Shirer lived primarily in Germany between 1934 and 1940. He observed (as a journalist) the appeasement of Hitler. He observed the Battle of Britain from the German side, and followed the German Army into France. He was present at Compiegne when Hitler accepted the French surrender in the same rail car in which the armistice that ended WWI was signed in November, 1918. He counted among his friends George Kennan and John Carter Vincent, two of the brighter stars in the foreign service constellation. The names of Kennan and Vincent, along with John Paton Davies, Colonel David Barrett, Alger Hiss, and others would surface again during the McCarthy era.
  
  Shirer, with Edward Murrow, pioneered radio as a news medium. After the war he wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". He saw the events through the eyes of an American, but one that had lived in Europe for most of his adult life.
• 
  Ray Grasshoff

  This book is an eyewitness account, by former American foreign reporter William L. Shirer, of Europe and Germany as Hitler and the Nazis came to power and began World War II. As such, it offers some great insights into how Hitler twisted facts or even made them up for a gullible German public and spineless leaders of England and France during that period. Shirer also offers personality sketches of German and other European officials whom he met and knew over the course of the decade. All in all, it's a great study of this "nightmare" period in world history, and offers great lessons for later times.
• 
  Dpwarzyn

  For all of Shirere's academic restraint in writing the totally objective Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, here he lets all spill out like guts on the floor. He is 180 degrees opposite and resorts to name-calling, insults, and strong opinions of the despicable Nazis he met and worked with while he was a radio correspondent there. Interesting.
• 
  AC

  (I had mistakenly listed the Berlin Diaries -- which I have not read -- when I meant to list this book)
  
  Fascinating, largely first-hand account by one of America's foremost war journalists. Recommened.
• 
  David

  Now, having read Shirer's Berlin Diary, The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich, The End of A Berlin Diary and now this, I think I've completed the Superfecta and heard what he has to say about Nazi Germany. He quotes extensively from his diary, so it's good that I read that long ago.
  
  Pro: a good account of one of the most interesting and important eras in 20th Century history, well written and colorful while being deadly serious
  
  Con: no bibliography and very little citation of sources, although since Shirer himself is the main source, perhaps that's OK. I love memoirs, and this certainly is that . . . not a history.
  
  Now, on to Shirer's book on the collapse of the French Third Republic.
• 
  Richard Marney

  William Shirer lived and worked in Europe (most notably the growing German Reich) through the buildup to World War II. His day to day experiences provide a unique perspective of the events that drove the world to its greatest tragedy in the modern era.
  
  This book allows the reader to look through Shirer’s window into history.
  
  The experience is made more chilling by today’s events in Ukraine. Let’s hope for a more happy ending.
  
• 
  Jeff P

  This is a fascinating memoir written by an American reporter stationed in Berlin at the start of WWII.
• 
  Erik Graff

  While the first volume of Shirer's autobiography, The Start, is primarily personal, the second, The Nightmare Years, has his personal life almost submerged in the events he covered as a journalist, these being primarily the Indian struggle for independence and the Nazi rise to power in central Europe, much of which was also described in his Berlin Diary. In addition to his eyewitness accounts of political events he was also, with Edward R. Murrow, a creator of real-time radio news reporting, the rather exciting story of which is told concurrently.
• 
  Fran Johnson

  William Shirer writes another excellent book about his experience as a newspaper man and an announcer in the new field of radio news. He's in Berlin , Germany during the awful years of World War Two, covering the years of 1030 to 1940. He then comes back to report on the Nuremberg Trials. It's a very good book about a very bad time in the world.
• 
  Charles

  Not quite as good as "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," but certainly a great achievement.
• 
  Sherrie

  #HolocaustRemembranceDay
  We must never forget how it started.
• 
  Julien Saint-Clemente

  The debut of the radio reportage , one of the best book i ever read , masterpiece !
• 
  Andy Wiesendanger

  Really enjoyed this book. Thought it would be good to get a first hand account of this era, but turns out I learned a lot about what happened leading up to war, and for the first few years. I guess because most of the stuff I've read on WWII is once USA got involved. Now I know some areas I can dig into in the future.
  
  Shirer had quite an interesting decade, spending time with Gandhi, until he and most of his followers were imprisoned. Then a trip to Afghanistan, which was pretty much closed off at that time, seeing the coronation of a new king there (which happened quite frequently). Then a year in Spain while the republic there was breaking down, and in '34 landing in Berlin, where he spent most of his time until 1940.
  
  He gives a great feel for what it was like living in Nazi Germany, as an American anyway. He was able to see through the lies, and they were blatant. But throughout he's amazed at how the people just swallow what they're told. He talks a bit about the split in the churches, how many went and followed the German Church, which was mostly pagan (Hitler thought the idea of a God dying was pretty weak). But that story to me is fascinating, how a nation considering themselves Christian winds up supporting the Nazi regime. I guess it comes down to identity, too many identified as Germans first, and when Hitler was "bringing back honor" to Germany, and undoing the wrong of Versailles, many could look past some of his nastier aspects. Which weren't blatant at first anyway.
  
  The second reason I'm sure is economic, as unemployment sank, and the govt made vacationing cheap, people started to feel they were coming out of the nightmare years of Weimar inflation. Making money, and seeing your country become "successful" can trump any spiritual truths. The German Church had some articles of belief, including the most important document being Mein Kampf, and the leader being Hitler. So you have millions of people a year earlier, sitting in churches that said Christianity is the Bible and Jesus, and now being ok switching to Mein Kampf and Hitler. Amazing.
  
  You can also attribute fear to this change, but that would come later I imagine, mid to late 30s. But when you think about this aspect, Germany was the home of the Reformation, which risked lives to disagree w/the Roman church. Then, they were risking their lives for what they felt was Biblical. Now they didn't want to risk their lives, and ditched the Bible for Mein Kampf.
  
  Such a great study, this change in Germany. We can certainly learn a lot. Don't ever think such things can't happen here, just look at how most people repeat talking points, and can't actually articulate why they believe whatever they're championing. Easy to lead people like that wherever you want.
  
  I'm also reading Bonhoeffer's "Cost of Discipleship", which is cool to read both at same time. He talks about what it means to follow Jesus. When you look at Nazi Germany, and you look at current USA, you can see what people identify as. We have a lot of stories to us, but which is the most important? Which will trump the others?
• 
  Trevor Kew

  I've been eyeing the large dusty hardcover copy of this book that has sat on my father's bookshelf ever since I was a very young child, wondering what it was all about. On a recent trip home, I finally picked the tome up off the shelf. Having read many books about the historical period covered by Shirer (1930s rise of Nazism), I didn't expect to find too much that would surprise or interest me, but I was captivated immediately by Shirer's detailed, nuanced, balanced narration of the astonishing historical events he witnessed along with the powerful way in which he conveyed his own personal experience of living through them. For someone who participated in the first-ever radio news roundup (1939-40?), his journalistic voice is astonishingly immediate and modern. As with many of the best books about the Nazis, he helps readers to understand German government and society of the time as more than just the Hollywood/comic book villains that in many ways they have now become. As this book was written by Shirer in his later years (the year I was born actually!), it is also refreshing to see the ways that he adds footnotes to his narration to explain misconceptions or knowledge gaps that he and other journalists or eyewitnesses (or indeed "participants" themselves) had at the time, always a valuable inclusion in any autobiographical historical account. This is a long read and could seem heavy going for modern readers used to short clips of information, but if you want to immerse yourself for a time in a top journalist's lived experience of history, I'd highly recommend this book. Also, for those who love the BBC's John Simpson's books (he is a man who has lived through an astounding number of recent modern world historical key events!), Shirer's narrative will probably also appeal.
• 
  John

  This is the second of three volumes which, together, form the memoirs of journalist William L. Shirer, and at over 600 pages, it's safe to say that the author's recollections are both exhaustive and, at times, exhausting. This is the only one of the three volumes which I've read, and it will likely remain so. While Shirer led a fascinating life in many regards, he was also very much a product of his time, which can make him difficult to relate to, not to mention the fact that the mundane details of his personal life can grow tedious at times. On the other hand, this book covers the author's life during the 1930s, primarily in Nazi Germany where, working in conjunction with Edward R. Murrow, he became a pioneer of live radio journalism and one of the most valuable sources of information about Nazi Germany in the buildup to and early years of WWII. This volume ends when, under mounting suspicion that he might be a spy, he left Germany at the end of 1940, returning only briefly in 1945 to cover the Nuremburg trials. I picked this book up used, without knowing a thing about it, when I wanted to get some background on WWII and the rise of Nazism, and from that perspective I found Shirer's account to be a useful supplement to his magnum opus, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." That having been said, there is a certain degree of overlap between the two massive tomes, and this one, in particular, dragged out irritatingly at times. On the plus side, though, it does include a bevy of excellent photos and supplements his character sketches of the monstrous architects of the Third Reich. For those who are fond of memoirs (and that does not include me), this would probably earn an extra star, but for me four stars is a gift, as I would probably dock it half a star, were that possible, for its soporific qualities.
• 
  David Hill

  This is the second volume of Shirer's memoirs. I have not read either of the other two, but after reading this one I will be sure to read the others.
  
  The book starts with the author's return to Vienna after working in India. As a journalist, it was his job to report on major stories in Europe for American newspaper readers at first, then eventually on the radio with his colleague Edward Murrow. He traveled widely through these years, living for extended times in Vienna, Spain, Berlin, and Geneva. Most of his time was spent covering Nazi Germany. He was witness to most of the major stories of the Nazi ascendance through to and including the defeat of France. Through his work, he personally knew most of the key figures in the Nazi regime.
  
  The narrative is compelling. Although written many years after the events, he kept detailed diaries and these inform the text. The title of the book is apt - Shirer lived through years of nightmare, and his story is often tense.
  
  The book doesn't cover the war after his return to the USA, but he provides a short epilogue. It is nominally about the Nuremberg trials, but is more a personal denouement. He searches through the rubble of Berlin and Nuremberg in search of places he lived, restaurants and bars he frequented, and the government buildings where he witnessed the stories he reported on. Finally, he gives little sketches of the defendants at Nuremberg, comparing them to their former selves, when they leaders of the regime, when they were the authors those nightmare years.
• 
  John McNair

  I really enjoyed Shirer's "Berlin Diary" (I have a print copy on the shelf), and I read that his "Rise and Fall . . ." is a classic, so I expected more from this autobiography (volume 2, I later learned). Maybe better not read on a Kindle (there are photos but no maps), if for no other reason than it's so much easier to flip back and forth in a print version. This had many elements of his "Berlin Diary" and also elements of his "Rise and Fall . . ." (both quoted throughout) but I have a feeling this 1984 book was more of an attempt to capitalize one last time on the success of both of those books rather than create something new. There's more than just his years in Germany - his early life as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune in India and Afghanistan, his year off in Spain when fired from the Tribune, his time in Vienna pre-war, his marriage and more. Shirer did a good job in linking what he lived then with the political backstories that emerged well after the times, but this has all been written about by better writers. We are left near the end with his leaving Germany in a hurry in early 1941 to his returning in late 1945. It's all a bit of a rush at the end of the book. All in all not a bad summary of - especially - the pre-war and early war years (1939-40) seen through the eyes of a witness, but I see this rather long-winded book as an attempt in retrospect to justify certain matters in Shirer's mind, and to maybe make him seem a better journalist/radio host than he actually was. The sensation title speaks for itself. - nightmare? He had the time of his life and he knew it!
• 
  Daniel

  There is something very powerful about texts written by an eyewitness to dramatic historical events; especially when that eyewitness is a professional journalist with great storytelling abilities. I had read Shirer's major historical works, about the third reich and the fall of France, so his writing skills were not a surprise. This book gives us a glimpse into his personal context to the events and let us view their effects on his professional and personal life. How it was difficult to report events from within a violent police state where everyhing and everybody is monitored and censored. How it was difficult also to keep an even keel emotionally in the face of the early successes of the nazi juggernaut and the corresponding weaknesses of the democracies. The pendulum seems to swing between totalitarian and democratic governance; the thirties were the nightmare years which led to the destruction of millions of lives during the second world war. Nowadays we see illiberal leaders and totalitarian states gaining influence and like that period of the thirties democracies are under attack from within. Shirer would find plenty to write in a similar vein about the events of today in Russia (Ukraine, Baltic States), China(Hong-Kong, Taiwan), Hungary, Turkey. The nazis excelled at the big lie and disinformation; nowadays Xi-Jiping , Putin and Trump display similar behaviors. History does not quite repeat itself but it certainly does run into cycles.
• 
  Brian Manville

  William Shirer is a legend in history circles for his in-depth study The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. This book could almost be considered the prequel to that book.
  
  Shirer's account is part history, part autobiography. He is able to weave his thoughts at the time (taken from his diaries) alongside what he saw going on around him. His accounts of Hitler's speeches and the almost hypnotic affect they had on the populace is nothing short of amazing. His first hand account inside Nazi Germany shows it to be a literal Bizarro World versus the rest of Europe.
  
  This time period also coincided with the rise of radio as a news medium. While taken for granted today (and passed over by TV and the internet), radio of the time was seen more as an entertainment medium. To this point, CBS had both Shirer and Ed Murrow - both future legends - going to various European cities to record various children's choirs. Unbelievably, the executives of CBS had little interest in news reports until the situation in Europe became too much to ignore. Somehow, this is representative of the general attitude of the world, a world that seemingly paid little attention to the Nazi and even less desire to stop them until it was too late.
  
  Whether your interest is biography, World War 2 history, or radio history, there is something to hook just about any history enthusiast.
  
  BOTTOM LINE: The prequel to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
• 
  Harold

  I was a teenager when "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich" by this author was first published. My parents, being in the Book Of The Month, Club purchased it immediately and I read it then. At the time I thought it dry but forged through it. After reading this, and more than a half century later, I think "TRAFOTTR" deserves a rereading. Shirer has an engaging style and while it sounds like a cliche, the fact that he kept detailed diaries and the vast bulk of "The Nightmare Years" takes place while he is broadcasting from Berlin, almost daily in the years leading up to, and in the beginning, of WWII, makes you feel like you were there. This is the best book on that subject I have read (pending my reread of "TRAFOTTR"). Shirer had daily contract with all the top rank Nazis and we see a side of them that is usually not present in historical accounts, with the possible exception of the books written about The Nuremberg Trials. There is a difference. The Nuremberg Trial books deal with defeated men. Most of their bravado is gone. This is before the war and defeat and they reveal to Shirer all their arrogance, bravado, duplicity, treachery and stupidity. Shirer is not taken in by any of it. If you have any interest if WWII in Europe...read this.
• 
  Kirby Davis

  Those who ponder the bias of today's press and reporters should read this volume in Shirer's three-book autobiography. Carrying us through his work during the Depression and World War 2 - first as a newspaperman, then a pioneering radio journalist - "The Nightmare Years" reveals in dramatic fashion how Shirer forged a family and career covering Nazi Germany. Of continued interest is how this liberal-minded man, who hated the Nazi leadership and what they stood for, still managed to report their actions with as open a mind as his opinions (and their vile actions) allowed. In this way "The Nightmare Years" makes a fascinating companion to the seminal work Shirer is primarily remembered for today, his landmark "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." That book (admittedly written during the Cold War, when western leaders went to great lengths to maintain friendly ties with West Germany) offers a fair (though still judgmental) view of Nazi actions, while this book reveals his unfiltered feelings - and with them, the ethical battles Shirer fought to do his job to the best of his ability. I look forward to reading more of "20th Century Journey," for Shirer lived a truly meorable life.
• 
  Alifa Saadya

  William L. Shirer was one of the pioneers of radio news broadcasting, along with his friend, CBS's Edward R. Murrow. He was the author of many books related to his career as a reporter, including Berlin Diary, End of the Berlin Diary, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and others.
  This segment of his 3-volume autobiography provides a fascinating look at his experiences in the Third Reich (and a short addition about his time in postwar destroyed Berlin and Nuremberg for the Military Tribunal).
  I have a great admiration for Shirer, and appreciate having his opinions on the history of which he was a part. The book is a bit long-winded, and drags at times, but it is worth hanging in there to read it all. I disagree with his assessment of Calvin Coolidge, and his admiration for FDR for having (supposedly) gotten America out of the Depression, but those are quibbles; it is Shirer's intelligent interpretation made in the era in which momentous events occurred.
  A must read for anyone with an in-depth interest in the rise of the Third Reich and the history of news coverage for radio.
• 
  Richard Mancuso

  This is the third book by William Shirer that I’ve read, as I’ve long been a fan of his writing (having read “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” three times, and also enjoyed in 2021 “The Collapse of the Third Republic”). While “The Nightmare Years” periodically references his other works, the truly captivating aspect of this book is the account he gives, from his diaries, of what life was like as a foreign correspondent in Europe during these turbulent years. In these accounts, he shares the experiences of his family life, stories about the diverse and fascinating people he came to know (including an adventure with a former prince of Afghanistan), but most importantly, he engagingly describes life as a foreign correspondent in Nazi Germany. He also recounts, in detail, how he and Ed Murrow came to be the prime radio correspondents from Europe during the early years of WWII.
  
  A must read if you're a fan of Shirer!