The long night

"When William L. Shirer agreed to start up the Berlin bureau of Edward R. Murrow's CBS News in the 1930s, he quickly became both the most trusted and most determined reporter in all of Europe. He did not fall for the Nazi propaganda, as some of his esteemed colleagues did, and fought against both Nazi censorship and American disdain for his relentless tactics. He warned of the consequences if the Nazis were not stopped, all the while developing close ties to the party's elite and maintaining contacts whose allegiances could not be won by other reporters, thus obtaining a unique perspective of the party's rise to power. From the Night of the Long Knives to his removal at bayonet-point from the broadcast center in Vienna during Anschluss, and from the front lines of Germany's invasion of France to his coverage of the Nuremberg trials and the Nazis' demise, Shirer redefined the importance of journalism. Here, thanks to Steve Wick's unique access to Shirer's archives--including never-before-seen journals and letters--The Long Night fleshes out the details of the maverick journalist's adventures in Europe, delivering a new, rich perspective on the Third Reich"--

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.