Customer Reviews

A Native's Return, 1945-1988 (Twentieth-Century Journey)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author's third and final memoir volume is very moving, but falls just short of its outstanding predecessors (THE START & NIGHTMARE YEARS) due to lighter sprinkling of contemporary history. William L. Shirer (1904-1993) lived a remarkably full life, and at age 85 retained the immense talents that ranked him among our top journalist/historians. Here he recounts returning to a defeated Berlin in 1945, his firing by CBS News (told quite differently elsewhere), and his struggle to write RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH while semi-blacklisted and half-broke in the late 1950's. Shirer also takes a limited look at the events of the 1970's and 1980's, describes his prolific seniority, and pays tribute to friends lost to advancing years. The author's bittersweet account of his final visit to Paris 60 years after having first lived there in the 1920's speaks volumes. This journalist-turned-author was a perceptive realist, somewhat headstrong and pessimistic, and well seasoned by wine, women and song. Writing that wonderfully readable prose of old newspapermen, Shirer certainly left his mark - as had been predicted in his college days by a long-forgotten editor back in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (see THE START).

This final memoir is perhaps best once you've gotten a sense of the man from his earlier memoirs and other stellar books. Not knowing that he'd live to finish another book (on Tolstoy), Shirer's final passages are a moving farewell. As he states, "...it was an interesting fate to be an American in the Twentieth Century...I am glad it was mine."

Shirer's historical narrative suffers somewhat when he turns the spotlight on himself. The first two books in the series, where his focus is growing up in early 20th century America and his years as a foriegn correspondent, are outstanding. In this voulme, his focus is on his blacklisting, struggling as an author, and his vindication in writing the definitive history of Nazi Germany. Instead of the candor he displayed in the earlier works, at a few points he leaves me feeling he is holding back. His description of his firing by CBS leaves me wanting more, some feeling of why there was such pressure to remove him. Instead, he just gives us his criticism of how he was wronged. I felt this same reluctance to be totally honest with the reader when he described his visit to the Soviet Union in 1982. He seems to have a stong admiration for Russia, but he just won't lay his cards on the table.

In summary, William Shirer seems a man I would disagree with on most subjects, but one whom I could admire and respect. He is mostly candid and honest about his liberalism, but I wish he would have not left some blanks in the record.

I read Volume III at the same time that I read Volume II. I enjoyed Volume III just as much as I enjoyed volume II.

In particular, I liked reading about:
1. Shirer's philosophical musings about meaning of life, especially in the General Introduction
2. The circumstances surrounding the publication of Berlin Diary. Blanche Knopf was enthusiastic, Alfred hated the book, and did not want to publish it.
3. Shirer's breakup with Murrow.
4. The down years after the firing by CBS, and the writing of Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
5. Shirer's recounting of receptions to his books, especially the narrow-minded and exclusionary 'professional' historians.
6. Shirer's coming to grips with the prospect of mortality.

Shirer's writing is lean and sharp as usual. In this book, Shirer does not shy away from discussing the deterioration of his marriage, and his relationship with another woman (while still married).

I rate this a 9 because it isn't quite The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, or The Collapse of the Third Republic. For any other author, this final volume of memoirs would be a 10. Academic historians hate the man, because he has outdone them at every turn and has made modern history readable. This final volume of memoirs is fascinating, because it recounts Shirer's view of his departure from CBS -- a view far different than that expressed by Ann Sperber in her biography of Edward R. Murrow. It is fascinating because it sets the reader down, and explains what it was like to be a world class author and intellectual unable to ply his craft due to the inclusion of his name in the notorious "Red Channels". In the final analysis, it is fascinating because it is William L. Shirer writing about William L. Shirer surviving ouster from CBS, McCarthyism, and going on to write two of the most important works of contemporary history the western world has ever been privilaged to read. This work cannot be commended too highly to the intellectually aware. Conservatives and other knotheads ought best to look elsewhere, for these are fools that Shirer does not suffer gladly, indeed at all.