Summary
By the acclaimed journalist and bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this day-by-day, eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is the private, personal, utterly revealing journal of a great foreign correspondent.
CBS radio broadcaster William L. Shirer was virtually unknown in 1940 when he decided there might be a book in the diary he had kept in Europe during the 1930s--specifically those sections dealing with the collapse of the European democracies and the rise of Nazi Germany.
Shirer was the only Western correspondent in Vienna on March 11, 1938, when the German troops marched in and took over Austria, and he alone reported the surrender by France to Germany on June 22, 1940, even before the Germans reported it. The whole time, Shirer kept a record of events, many of which could not be publicly reported because of censorship by the Germans. In December 1940, Shirer learned that the Germans were building a case against him for espionage, an offense punishable by death. Fortunately, Shirer escaped and was able to take most of his diary with him.
Berlin Diary first appeared in 1941, and the timing was perfect. The energy, the passion, and the electricity in it were palpable. The book was an instant success, and it became the frame of reference against which thoughtful Americans judged the rush of events in Europe. It exactly matched journalist to event: the right reporter at the right place at the right time. It stood, and still stands, as so few books have ever done--a pure act of journalistic witness.
William Lawrence Shirer (February 23, 1904 - December 28, 1993) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian, who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly works for more than 50 years. Shirer was born in Chicago and graduated from Coe. Originally a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the International News Service, Shirer was the first reporter hired by Edward R. Murrow for what would become a CBS radio team of journalists, and he became known for his broadcasts from Berlin, from the rise of the Nazi dictatorship through the first year of World War II (1940). With Murrow, he organized the first broadcast world news roundup, a format still followed by news broadcasts. Shirer wrote more than a dozen books including Berlin Diary (published in 1941); The Collapse of the Third Republic (1969) and a three-volume autobiography, Twentieth Century Journey (1976 to 1990).
Shirer received a 1946 Peabody Award for Outstanding Reporting and Interpretation of News for his work at CBS. His book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, won the 1961 National Book Award for Nonfiction and Carey-Thomas Award for non-fiction.
(Bowker Author Biography)
![Cover image for Berlin diary : [the journal of a foreign correspondent, 1934-1941]](/client/assets/5.1294/ctx//client/images/no_image.png "Cover image for Berlin diary : [the journal of a foreign correspondent, 1934-1941]")