The Nightmare Years: 1930-40

As European correspondent for a number of American newspapers during the 1930s, William L. Shirer witnessed at first hand many of the pivotal events in the buildup to World War II. At the Nuremberg rallies, when Hitler roared through the streets celebrating his newly-won domination of Germany, Shirer was there. In Munich, as Chamberlain abandoned the Czechs, Shirer was there. In Vienna during the night of the Anschluss, in Berlin, when Hitler loosed his Blitzkrieg on Poland and began the war, Shirer was there. Through articles, broadcasts and translations of Hitler’s speeches, Shirer tirelessly tried to warn the world of the terrible evil that was growing in Germany. The Nightmare Years, a No. I bestseller when first published in America in 1984, is not only the fascinating eyewitness account of this cataclysmic decade, but also the more personal story of a young American caught in tense and desperate times, struggling to survive and provide a life for himself and his family as the world lurched inexorably towards war.

‘More than any conventional history book, Shirer’s memoirs let a reader relive history’ -People

‘A superb journalist. ..Shirer was close enough to Hitler to feel the Nazi leader’s messianic personal force. ..An unusually fine book’ -Time

‘No one ever did more to explain the rise of the Nazis’
-Barbara Tuchman

‘An outstanding achievement of journalistic history; indeed it is the best kind of accurate and absorbing history’ -Washington Post