| Written by William L. Shirer - Audio book narrated by Grover Gardner - Unabridged Nonfiction - 4 RETAIL EDITION MP3 COMPACT DISCS- 56.1 hours Publisher, Blackstone Audiobooks (September 2010) NOTE: RETAIL EDITIONS are packaged in attractive, compact cardboard, jewel-case or DVD shrink-wrapped boxes, with full-color art. ALERT! YOUR CD PLAYER MUST BE MP3 COMPATIBLE! MP3 audiobooks on compact disc can be played on newer CD players that support MP3 technology and accept a 4.75" diameter disc, and on any personal computer that has Microsoft's Media Player or similar software. Listen to a FREE audio clip. "One of the most important works of history of our time." —The New York Times ”A splendid work of scholarship, objective in method, sound in judgment, inescapable in its conclusions.” —New York Times Book Review “Expertly performed by narrator Grover Gardner. Gardner makes Shirer's thoroughly detailed text approachable through his seamless performance and fluid pacing…The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is an epic historical text that now achieves a place of importance in the annals of the audiobook world. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile The Worldwide Bestselling Classic Winner of the National Book Award in 1961 Winner of the Carey-Thomas Award for Nonfiction Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the twentieth century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic. Now, years after the end of World War II, it may seem incredible that our most valued institutions, and way of life, were threatened by the menace that Hitler and the Third Reich represented. Shirer’s description of events and the cast of characters who played such pivotal roles in defining the course Europe was to take is unforgettable. Benefiting from his many years as a reporter, and thus a personal observer of the rise of Nazi Germany, and availing himself of some of the 485 tons of documents from the German Foreign Office, as well as countless other diaries, phone transcriptions, and other written records, meticulously kept at every level by the Germans, Shirer has put together a brutally objective account of how Hitler wrested political control of Germany, and planned and executed his six-year quest to dominate the world, only to see Germany go down in flames. Although 1600 pages long, this is such a richly rewarding experience for anyone who wants to come to grips with the mysterious question as to how this menace to civilization ever came into being, much less was sustained for as long as it was. The answer, unfortunately, is that most of Germany, for a whole host of reasons, embraced Nazism and the fanaticism that Hitler engendered. Contents Include: Foreword Book One: The Rise of Adolf Hitler 1. Birth of the Third Reich
2. Birth of the Nazi Party
3. Versailles, Weimar and the Beer Hall Putsch
4. The Mind of Hitler and the Roots of the Third Reich Book Two: Triumph and Consolidation 5. The Road to Power: 1925-31
6. The Last Days of the Republic: 1931-33
7. The Nazification of Germany: 1933-34
8. Life in the Third Reich: 1933-37 Book Three: The Road to War 9. The First Steps: 1934-37
10. Strange, Fateful Interlude: The Fall of Blomberg, Fritsch, Neurath and Schacht
11. Anschluss: The Rape of Austria
12. The Road to Munich
13. Czechoslovakia Ceases to Exist
14. The Turn of Poland
15. The Nazi-Soviet Pact
16. The Last Days of Peace
17. The Launching of World War II Book Four: War: Early Victories and the Turning Point 18. The Fall of Poland
19. Sitzkrieg in the West
20. The Conquest of Denmark and Norway
21. Victory in the West
22. Operation Sea Lion: The Thwarted Invasion of Britain
23. Barbarossa: The Turn of Russia
24. A Turn of the Tide
25. The Turn of the United States
26. The Great Turning Point: 1942—Stalingrad and El Alamein Book Five: Beginning of the End 27. The New Order
28. The Fall of Mussolini
29. The Allied Invasion of Western Europe and the Attempt to Kill Hitler Book Six: The Fall of the Third Reich 30. The Conquest of Germany
31. Goetterdaemmerung: The Last Days of the Third Reich Afterword About the Author: WILLIAM L. SHIRER has had a distinguished career as foreign correspondent, news commentator, and historian of the contemporary world. He was a war correspondent reporting from Berlin on the rise of the Nazis for the Universal News Service and for CBS. Out of these reports grew his bestsellers, Berlin Diary and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which has sold more copies for the Book-of-the-Month Club than any other book in the club's history. About the Narrator: "One of the most celebrated and accomplished narrators of audiobooks, Grover Gardner has recorded in a voice of “sandpaper and velvet” for nearly three decades. After first working in Washington, D.C., for the Library of Congress, Grover established his own independent recording studio in Maryland, where he recorded hundreds of audiobooks that garnered awards throughout the industry. Grover is one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices and has received dozens of Earphones Awards for exceptional performances. In 2007, Grover moved to Ashland, Oregon; he continues to record as well as manage Blackstone Audiobooks productions as Studio Director." —AudioFile Magazine | 
