The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

★★★★☆ | History | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads

I read this classic to learn about Nazi Germany and the rise of fascism to understand better any parallels we might be seeing in the United States today. The first third of the book revealed many examples of Hitler’s power grab that felt very eerily similar to Trump. So many that you could make the case that Trump used Hitler as a role model for his political ambitions, as scary as that sounds.

Consider:

• Hitler used emergency decrees like the Reichstag Fire Decree to suspend civil liberties from the first days of becoming Chancellor. Trump invoked the National Emergencies Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to act without the constraints of Congress.
• Hitler employed massive propaganda campaigns. Trump continually uses social media to spread disinformation.
• Hitler believed he could restore Germany to greatness if only he could rid the country of Jews and Communists. Trump has targeted immigrants as the source of America’s woes.
• Both Hitler and Trump attacked universities and intellectuals.
• Hitler labeled the press “Lügenpresse” (“lying press”), while Trump derides mainstream media as “Fake News.”
• Hitler promoted Aryan supremacy and German unity; Trump is “America First” and anti-globalization.

This history is told almost exclusively from Hitler’s point of view. As such, we get to understand why he did what he did. There were so many turning points where, if only one thing had been different, none of the rest would have happened. This is true for all of life.

Shirer lived in Germany as a journalist during the 1930s and 40s, so the book is peppered with personal accounts, which in many cases brought this history alive for me. This leads to my only complaint. The author was too close to the action. There are too many digressions and minor historical figures that made an already long book overly detailed.

I’m glad I invested the time to read this hefty tome. I can more readily put current events and government decisions into the context of what happened in Nazi Germany. I know what to look for. As Churchill reminded us after the conclusion of World War II: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”