William shirer books in order
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Reading William L. Shirer, or Why I Miss the 20th Century
Jack Dunne
Maybe you miss it too. Or maybe you just missed it, or missed most of it. Not that it was all lollipops and moonbeams. There was plenty of horrible stuff. But looking back, a lot of important things happened and my memory leaves me curious, and nostalgic.
It feels familiar. While I was only around for the second half of it, I have family stories and photographs that make it feel real, as if I was around for more. Is it history if I was there, or feel like “we” were? William Shirer was there for a lot of it, and his autobiography is full of being there.
He was born in 1904 in Chicago to a middle-class family to a dad with a law practice, mom at home, siblings, kind of “Leave it to Beaver” stuff but before cars. Then his dad got sick and died. Single mom has to move the kids back home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, little Billy has to work to help out, eventually goes to a little liberal arts college to study liberal arts — you know, history, English and sociology. That was an
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William Lawrence Shirer (February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly works for more than 50 years. Originally a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the International News Service, Shirer was the first reporter hired by Edward R. Murrow for what would become a CBS radio team of journalists known as "Murrow's Boys." He became known for his broadcasts from Berlin, from the rise of the Nazi dictatorship through the first year of World War II (1940). With Murrow, he organized the first broadcast world news roundup, a format still followed by news broadcasts.
Shirer wrote more than a dozen books beside The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, including Berlin Diary (published in 1941); The Collapse of the Third Republic (1969), which drew on his experience living and working in France from 1925 to 1933; and a three-volume autobiography, Twentieth Century Journey (1976 to 1990). His brother was a
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William L. Shirer
American journalist, war correspondent, and author (1904–1993)
William L. Shirer | |
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Shirer in 1961 | |
| Born | William Lawrence Shirer (1904-02-23)February 23, 1904 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | December 28, 1993(1993-12-28) (aged 89) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Coe College |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, historian |
| Spouses | Theresa Stiberitz (m. 1931; div. 1970)Martha Pelton (m. 1972; div. 1975)Irina Alexandrovna Lugovskaya (m. 1987) |
| Children | 2 |
William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian. His The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany, has been read by many and cited in scholarly works for more than 60 years; its 50th anniversary was marked by a new edition of the book.
As a young man just out of college, in 1925 Shirer was hired
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