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Review
`Larson's best and most enthralling work of novelistic history...rich with incident, populated by fascinating secondary characters, tinged with rising peril and pityingly persuasive...powerful, poignant...a transportingly true story.' --NEW YORK TIMES
`Reads like an elegant thriller...utterly compelling...an excellent and entertaining book that deserves to be a bestseller.' --WASHINGTON POST
`Fascinating...using letters and diaries, Larson - a master at writing true tales as riveting as fiction - creates a nuanced, eyewitness account of a father and daughter whose eyes thankfully opened as the horrors closed in.' --PEOPLE
`Compelling...the kind of book that brings history alive to readers and proves why Larson's Isaac's Storm and The Devil in the White City were such hits.' --USA TODAY
`Larson has meticulously researched the Dodds' intimate witness to Hitler's ascendancy...has all the pleasures of a political thriller: innocents abroad, the gathering storm...a fresh picture of these terrible events.' --NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'Larson writes history like a novelist. He presents a familiar story through fresh eyes, conveying quite wonderfully the electrically charged atmosphere of a whole society turning towards the stormy dark'
--Sunday Telegraph, 10 July 2011
'A compelling tale... a narrative that makes such a brave effort to see history as it evolves and not as it becomes' --SPECTATOR, 30 July 2011
'Darkly enjoyable...his tale is well told'
--SUNDAY TIMES, 24 July 2011
'Gives the subject matter a fresh perspective... Larson paints a vivid picture of 1930s Berlin, a city spiraling into disaster. A master of mood, he manipulates the reader to the point that we find ourselves gripping on to every shard of hope, even to the extent of expecting the march of history to miraculously change course before our very eyes'
--Time Out, 4 August 2011
`Reads like an elegant thriller...utterly compelling...an excellent and entertaining book that deserves to be a bestseller.' --WASHINGTON POST
`Fascinating...using letters and diaries, Larson - a master at writing true tales as riveting as fiction - creates a nuanced, eyewitness account of a father and daughter whose eyes thankfully opened as the horrors closed in.' --PEOPLE
`Compelling...the kind of book that brings history alive to readers and proves why Larson's Isaac's Storm and The Devil in the White City were such hits.' --USA TODAY
`Larson has meticulously researched the Dodds' intimate witness to Hitler's ascendancy...has all the pleasures of a political thriller: innocents abroad, the gathering storm...a fresh picture of these terrible events.' --NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
'Larson writes history like a novelist. He presents a familiar story through fresh eyes, conveying quite wonderfully the electrically charged atmosphere of a whole society turning towards the stormy dark'
--Sunday Telegraph, 10 July 2011
'A compelling tale... a narrative that makes such a brave effort to see history as it evolves and not as it becomes' --SPECTATOR, 30 July 2011
'Darkly enjoyable...his tale is well told'
--SUNDAY TIMES, 24 July 2011
'Gives the subject matter a fresh perspective... Larson paints a vivid picture of 1930s Berlin, a city spiraling into disaster. A master of mood, he manipulates the reader to the point that we find ourselves gripping on to every shard of hope, even to the extent of expecting the march of history to miraculously change course before our very eyes'
--Time Out, 4 August 2011
Book Description
The extraordinary true story of intrigue and emerging terror at the American embassy in Berlin during the tumultuous twelve months that witnessed Hitler's rise to ultimate power in Germany.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
We are have all read books on the Nazi terror but do we know what it was like to have lived under them in Berlin? The terrifying and all pervasive force, even for the American diplomats from whose diaries the accounts are taken, provides a vivid picture. Yet, it also explains how close Hitlers coterie of thugs came to losing power and why many Berliners even as early as 1934 were certain that they would be kicked out. A good read that fills in the gaps of the dreadful Nazi political machine.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read - and been somewhat bored -by Larson's "Devil in White City", I wasn't expecting much when I began this book. I am interested in this period of history, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, much more so than in the war that was to follow. Perhaps this was why I became quite gripped by this historical account as Larson tries to imagine how it must have been to have lived in Berlin at the time the "Night of the Long Knives" occurred. What must it have been like to have moved in the circle of the men who brought the world to war?
In order to do this, Larson follows the diplomatic career and social life of William Dodd, posted somewhat reluctantly with his family as American Ambassador to Berlin in 1933. Very few others wanted the position due to the ominous portents already evident in Germany as Hitler extended his influence and power. Dodd's family went with him, and his daughter Martha was to fall in love with the city when she arrived as a young and vibrant American woman. The book focuses attention on many of the trysts she was to have with some of the intriguing and sinister characters who moved in political circles at the time, from men of the Gestapo to those working for the Soviets.
Larson, I think, manages to capture the growing paranoia and creeping terror that gradually infused the political elite while, at the same time, the lives and loves of the ordinary Berliners continued in near happy oblivion (providing they weren't Jewish, and weren't close to any Jewish people, of course.) Berlin is portrayed as quite a happy, content and pretty place, while storm clouds gathered literally and metaphorically in the distance. The main characters, including the Nazi high command, are well drawn and rounded, helping to give the story a humanity that is missing in many historical accounts. A good read then, and I think I'll put Larson back on my list of authors worth watching out for.
In order to do this, Larson follows the diplomatic career and social life of William Dodd, posted somewhat reluctantly with his family as American Ambassador to Berlin in 1933. Very few others wanted the position due to the ominous portents already evident in Germany as Hitler extended his influence and power. Dodd's family went with him, and his daughter Martha was to fall in love with the city when she arrived as a young and vibrant American woman. The book focuses attention on many of the trysts she was to have with some of the intriguing and sinister characters who moved in political circles at the time, from men of the Gestapo to those working for the Soviets.
Larson, I think, manages to capture the growing paranoia and creeping terror that gradually infused the political elite while, at the same time, the lives and loves of the ordinary Berliners continued in near happy oblivion (providing they weren't Jewish, and weren't close to any Jewish people, of course.) Berlin is portrayed as quite a happy, content and pretty place, while storm clouds gathered literally and metaphorically in the distance. The main characters, including the Nazi high command, are well drawn and rounded, helping to give the story a humanity that is missing in many historical accounts. A good read then, and I think I'll put Larson back on my list of authors worth watching out for.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This account of the stay in 1930s Berlin of US Ambassador Dodd and his family is certainly interesting as background to the period. Unfortunately its author could not decide whether the focus of the book was to be the Ambassador and political/social issues, or the various activities of Mr Dodd's daughter and her many male admirers (who seem to include, very retrospectively, the author himself). Although the author has drawn on family memoirs for both aspects, some of the material lacks substance and corroboration and the book reads more like a novel than history in some places. Larson is concerned to show Dodds as a prophet without honour in his own country and largely succeeds in that aim. Overall the book is certainly worth reading for anyone interested in the period. Contrary to what some reviews say, the author makes no attempt to disguise the fact that Dodd's daughter was active - albeit rather ineffectively - in espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union after WWII as well as before.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
As readable as a novel...
Erik Larson writes history like a novel, so readable and engrossing that the pages fly by. I could scarcely put this book down. Read more
Published 1 month ago by C. Ball
A decent man in an impossible situation
Roosevelt chose a distinguished academic to represent the United States as Ambassador in the early years of Hitler's Germany, 1933 +. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Peter Zander
How it came to pass ... read and remember
"The story," says the cover, "of an American family in Hitler's Berlin." These are the interlocking themes of a gripping tale. Read more
Published 4 months ago by G. M. Sinstadt
Informative, interesting, but still lacking something
While I found this book to be interesting and informative about a topic with which I was not familiar, I find it difficult to agree with the various accolades on the back cover. Read more
Published 7 months ago by An American in Florence
Interesting but somewhat lacking
An interesting book but much more about the ambassador's somewhat promiscuous daughter and her many affairs with writers, Natzis and Communists. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. M. J. Payne
Understanding Ms Mitford
Any history student will love this, any prose reader will enjoy its readable style and personal experiences of living in Berlin in the period 33-38. Read more
Published 8 months ago by jossnzi
'This isn't America and you can't say all the things you think'...
...the words spoken to Martha Dodd as she was driven past the burnt out ruin of the Reichstag on arrival in Berlin, after she asked if the suspicious circumstances of the fire had... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. Chris Pearson
squadie
I was dissapointed with this book. The cover, which looked nothing like the picture in the Sunday Mail, gives the impression that it is a work of fiction and in some cases read... Read more
Published 9 months ago by squadie
Nothing dry about this history book
William Dodd served as US Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937. He moved there with his family and this is the account of primarily their first year in Germany. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Julia Flyte
Another memorable and enjoyable journey back in time
Others have their own reasons for holding this book in such high regard. Here are three of mine:
First, as he did in his earlier masterwork, The Devil in the White City,... Read more
First, as he did in his earlier masterwork, The Devil in the White City,... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Robert Morris
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