Welcome to Litsy!

I finally finished this massive tome. I‘ve neglected learning much about WW2 over my lifetime, so this was quite the journey through history, but well worth it. I realize that some modern academic historians are critical of Shirer‘s work in that as a journalist, they view him as an amateur who failed to research and analyze in a rigorous manner. I‘m in no position to weigh in on that, but I can confess that I did enjoy this book quite a bit.

#SpringSkies #FallInTitle

📕The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

It‘s the History major in me.

10 years later, I‘m finished thanks to the audible version. The 1st part was interesting & scary, the 2nd part went really into the weeds and into horrors, the 3rd part was kind of confusing. There is a lot of bureaucracy & a lot of horrible things described, but it‘s very important to see that these evil people aren‘t masterminds, and to know it can happen again. The author met some of the Nazis as a journalist and that was interesting.
3/5 stars

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, and some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Jon in if you want!

#ABookaDay2023

I learned so much from this incredibly detailed book. It is very thorough. Cons: the Author seemed to have a phobia of anyone who wasn‘t clearly, typically, heterosexual. Also, while he mentioned male resistance fighters, no women were mentioned and he would have known about them because many were involved in the same groups as the men. He was a journalist in Germany during this time. I am very glad I will not be spending more time with Nazis.

As it's been over a year since I started, I discovered its heavily detailed approach makes for slow-going, even though the writing is solid and engaging.

This fell to the Did Not Finish pile because it's draining my reading time from other books. I did get through the Rising part and grokked the parallels with modern autocratic and fascist movements of the 21st century. I consider it a win despite not making it all the way through the book.

Superb.
If you only read one book on WWII as relates to Germany's Nazi Party. Read this.
An authoritative volume.

Finishing this must-read history of Nazi Germany is a major life milestone! Shirer wrote in his 1990 afterward, “remembrance of the past helps us to understand the present.” This is just as true then as now. This momentous history book showed how essential first-hand accounts are to our understanding of geopolitics. Testimony and truth-speak reveal our greatest weaknesses and strengths as human beings. #witness

"Though Hitler was to forget it when he came to power in Germany, one of the lessons of his Vienna years... is the futility of a political party‘s trying to oppose the churches. 'Regardless of how much room for criticism there was in any religious denomination...a political party must never...lose sight of the fact that... a purely political party has never succeeded in producing a religious reformation.'" But pol. parties have co-opted churches.

🍁'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' ( by William Shirer)
🍁Smaller, straight to the point books (Hate digression and detail quagmires. Looking at you, Neal Stephenson!)
🍁Starbucks' PSLs w/dark chocolate covered graham crackers on the side
🍁Republic of Teas Ginger Spice Decaf
🍁In bed!
🍁'The Secret of the Old Clock' (by Carolyn Keene)

I felt this was an important book I should read. I did not realize it was a thousand page monstrosity until I opened the box. This may take me a while... 😳 #bookhaul

Let the games begin *rubs hands* 😎👍🏻! #LitsyLovesLibraries

Taking on something a bit more serious.

Here's to 60 hours of audiobook ahead of me! The past is the present.

Time for some education. Over a thousand pages 👍

George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." So, in light of the current political situation and the fact that it's #NFNovember, I'm recommending Shirer's seminal account of Nazi Germany. It's long, but thorough and revelatory. If you only read one book about this subject, this is it. #Recommendsday

Today's #bookmail . Not a #diversebook in the traditional sense, but I think it is important to understand what happened in the past in order to make sense of the present.