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What book did you just start?
By Stephanie · 3501 posts · 467 views
By Stephanie · 3501 posts · 467 views
last updated Feb 27, 2024 08:11PM
What Members Thought
This was my first Erik Larson book and it won't be my last. I don't usually read nonfiction/history because it can be so dry. This book was anything but dry, it read like fiction/suspense. I recently visited Berlin and thought this book would be perfect to read since I participated in a history walk through the city visiting the Tiergarten and the Reichstag Building. I have read many books about WWII but nothing about the early years when Hitler was coming into power and how the German people we
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Excellent well-researched book. I love reading WW II history and historical fiction, particularly about the pre-war years when Hitler became chancellor. I enjoy reading about daily life in Germany. This book grabbed me from the first page and never let go. Extremely interesting and entertaining with flawless research! As a side note, I loved that Bella Fromm was present in this book. I read her 'Blood and Banquets, a Berlin Diary' several years ago, and it was fascinating. Thank you, Mr. Larson!
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No spoilers here - we all know how this story ends. But why didn't Americans see the Holocaust or World War II coming? Through the story of the American ambassador and his family in 1930s Berlin, Larson outlines how American antisemitism and isolationism helped allow the monstrosity of Third Reich to take off. Larson details the years before the war through the central characters of the time, including foreign diplomats, Nazis, and others, using their own memoirs and letters to bring them to lif
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I got bored with this one mid-way through and haven't had the desire to finish it.
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William Dodd was appointed as the U.S. ambassador to Germany by FDR in 1932 after others either refused the position or were deemed inappropriate for the post in a sensitive situation with Hitler rising to power. He moved to Berlin with his wife and two adult children, including his promiscuous daughter who at first sympathized with the Nazis and consorted with a communist who tried to enlist her as a spy for the Soviet Union.
It is disturbing, in 2011, to realize that anti-Jewish sentiment was ...more
It is disturbing, in 2011, to realize that anti-Jewish sentiment was ...more
Erik Larson brings history alive for me. I'm there, strolling through the Tiergarten, with Martha and Dodd.
This is a fascinating period to read about and this book kept me up late experiencing it.
More Larson for me, please... ...more
This is a fascinating period to read about and this book kept me up late experiencing it.
More Larson for me, please... ...more
I feel so sad after reading this unbelievable book. It is so important that this story has been told. I recommend this book for everyone.
Apr 21, 2011
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