20th Century Journey Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Start: 1904-30 | 1976 | Buy |
| The Nightmare Years: 1930-40 | 1984 | Buy |
| A Native’s Return: 1945-1988 | 1990 | Buy |
Berlin Diary Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Berlin Diary | 1941 | N/A |
| Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941 | 1941 | Buy |
| End of a Berlin Diary | 1947 | Buy |
Non-Fiction
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Midcentury Journey | 1952 | Buy |
| The Challenge of Scandinavia | 1955 | Buy |
| The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany | 1960 | Buy |
| The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler | 1961 | Buy |
| The Sinking of the Bismarck | 1962 | Buy |
| The Collapse of the Third Republic | 1969 | Buy |
| Gandhi: A Memoir | 1980 | Buy |
| Love and Hatred: The Troubled Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy | 1994 | Buy |
| This Is Berlin: Reporting from Nazi Germany 1938-40 | 2014 | Buy |
William L. Shirer was an American journalist and historian born in Chicago in 1904. He worked as a foreign correspondent in Europe for more than two decades, covering events from the fall of France to the Nuremberg trials. His years reporting from inside Nazi Germany for CBS Radio gave him a front-row view of the Third Reich.
His best-known book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960), won the National Book Award and became one of the most widely read histories of Nazi Germany ever published. Berlin Diary (1941), drawn from notes he kept while stationed in the German capital, was a bestseller on its release and remains a primary source for scholars. His three-volume memoir, 20th Century Journey, covers his life from a Midwestern childhood through his European reporting years and his return to the United States.
Shirer also wrote about France’s collapse in 1940 (The Collapse of the Third Republic), his friendship with Mahatma Gandhi, and the marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy. He died in Boston in 1993 at age 89.