The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Volume I

37 hrs. 53 min.

Language Russian

Author William Shirer

Narrator Alexander Kharitonov

The New York Times called this book “one of the most important works in modern history.”
This book received the National Book Award, was translated into nearly every language, reprinted more than 30 times — and it still finds thousands upon thousands of new readers all over the world.
What gives William Shirer’s work such value? Why do many scholars consider it “the best thing ever written about Nazism in Germany”?
The author does not merely state facts and describe events; he analyzes in detail and objectively the origins of National Socialism.
The course of German history and the features of the German national mentality, the widespread theory of Germany’s “special path,” the political and economic deadlock in which the country found itself after the Treaty of Versailles, the ideological roots of National Socialism, and even details of Hitler’s biography — William Shirer brings all this together and studies it as a whole in terms of mutual influence.

Contents:

To the Reader.

Book One
Hitler’s Rise to Power.

Chapter 1. Birth of the Third Reich
Chapter 2. Birth of the Nazi Party
Chapter 3. Versailles, Weimar and the “Beer Hall Putsch”
Chapter 4. Hitler’s Views and the Origins of the Third Reich

Book Two.
Triumph and Consolidation of Power

Chapter 5. The Road to Power: 1925-1931
Chapter 6. The Last Days of the Republic: 1931-1933
Chapter 7. Pacification of Germany: 1933-1934
Chapter 8. Life in the Third Reich: 1933-1937

Book Three.
The Road to War

Chapter 9. First Steps: 1934-1937
Chapter 10. The Fall of Blomberg, Fritsch, Neurath and Schacht
Chapter 11. Anschluss: The Rape of Austria
Chapter 12. Road to Munich
Chapter 13. Czechoslovakia Ceases to Exist
Chapter 14. Poland Is Next
Chapter 15. The German-Soviet Pact
Chapter 16. The Last Days of Peace
Chapter 17. The Beginning of the Second World War

Book Four.
War: Early Victories and the Great Turning Point

Chapter 18. Fall of Poland
Chapter 19. The Phony War in the West
Chapter 20. Seizure of Denmark and Norway
Chapter 21. Victory in the West
Chapter 22. Operation “Sea Lion”: The Aborted Invasion of England
Chapter 23. “Barbarossa”: Russia Is Next
Chapter 24. Events Take Another Turn
Chapter 25. The United States Is Next
Chapter 26. The Great Turn. 1942: Stalingrad and El Alamein

Book Five.
The Beginning of the End

Chapter 27. “The New Order”
Chapter 28. Fall of Mussolini
Chapter 29. The Allied Invasion of Western Europe and the Attempt on Hitler’s Life

Book Six.
Fall of the Third Reich

Chapter 30. Occupation of Germany
Chapter 31. The Last Days of the Third Reich

Afterword. Rules of Hygiene in the Plague Barrack.

1. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Volume I 2. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Vol. II (narrated by Alexander Kharitonov)