In the Garden of Beasts

Posted on 21 January 2018 by Erik Larson

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E Dodd becomes America s first ambassador to Hitler s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.A mild mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence Enad of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler s true character and ruthless ambition.Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming yet wholly sinister Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror. New Download [ In the Garden of Beasts ] Author [ Erik Larson ] – kino-fada.fr Picture Principal Skinner from The Simpsons and Paris Hilton going to Nazi Germany, and you ll have a pretty good idea of what this book is like.I was split on Erik Larson s The Devil in the White City because I found the half of the book about the 1893 Chicago s World Fair incredibly interesting but thought the other half about serial killer H.H Holmes to be just another true crime gore fest Then in Thunderstruck he again gave us some nice pop history with the story of Marconi and the inventi Picture Principal Skinner from The Simpsons and Paris Hilton going to Nazi Germany, and you ll have a pretty good idea of what this book is like.I was split on Erik Larson s The Devil in the White City because I found the half of the book about the 1893 Chicago s World Fair incredibly interesting but thought the other half about serial killer H.H Holmes to be just another true crime gore fest Then in Th...I didn t think you could make the rise of Hitler boring, butthis was Ever so much 300 pages of But unknown to Dodd, all the rich dudes in the US hated him and were saying things like blah blah blah and Martha was having yet another affair and Everyone in Berlin seemed happy but THE ATMOSPHERE WAS TENSE that all led up to a rather anticlimactic Night of the Long Knives I really just didn t care for anyone in the Dodd family Dodd himself seemed stuffy and did not, over the course of I didn t think yo...Be prepared to stay up reading into the wee hours once you get your hands on this book It held my interest better than any novel, and it filled in all the gaps in my understanding of how Hitler was able to gain so much power so quickly, with so little opposition Erik Larson used the detailed diaries of William E Dodd and his daughter Martha to reconstruct a year in the life for Americans in Berlin from 1933 to 1934.William Dodd had no idea what he was saying yes to when President Roosevelt Be prepared to stay up reading into the wee hours once you get your hands on this book It held my interest better than any novel, and it filled in all the gaps in my understanding of how Hitler was able to gain so much power so quickly, with so little opposition Erik Larson used the detailed diaries of William E Dodd and his daughter Martha to reconstruct a year in the life for Americans in Berlin from 1933 to 1934.William Dodd had no idea what he was saying yes to when President Roosevelt offered him the position of ambassador to Ger...In 1933, William Dodd, a Chicago academic is appointed the first American ambassador to Hitler s Germany He enters this cauldron accompanied by his family, most particularly by his very modern daughter, Martha Larson shows us the quickly changing Germany of 1933 through their eyes While this is hardly a man on the strasse point of view, a look at the goings on through the experiences of a diplomat and his daughter does get ...Ambassador Dodd, perhaps one of the most unusual ambassadors to a major country we have ever had, was initially reluctant to criticize the Hitler regime, mainly due to his nostalgic memories of the time he spent studying in Germany decades before But it didn t take him too long to figure out just how horrible the Nazis already were in 1933 and 1934 Dodd s opponents in the State Department wouldn t listen President Roosevelt listened, seemed to agree, but did nothing.It seems clear from this p Ambassador Dodd, perhaps one of the most unusual ambassadors to a major country we have ever had, was initially reluctant to criticize the Hitler regime, mainly due to his nostalgic memories of the time he spent studying in Germany decades before But it didn t take him too long to figure out just how horrible the Nazis already were in 1933 and 1934 Dodd s opponents in the State Department wouldn t listen President Roosevelt listened, seemed to agree, but did nothing.It seems clear from this personal view of the early Nazi years that pressure from abroad, especially from the U.S., might have resulted in an early exit for Hitler No invasion of Poland and France No World War II No Holocaust Why did Roosevelt fail to act One theme that recurs several times in Larson s book is concern over Germany s re payment of its debt to U.S interests I need to dores...Want to know what it would be like to try to talk Satan out of being such a dick Consider reading In the Garden of Beasts Erudite but ineffectual historian, Dr William E Dodd was chosen to be Ambassador to Germany in the decade leading up to WWII, because President Roosevelt couldn t find anyone else willing to take on the job In 1933 Dodd was tasked with handling relations with a rabid and deranged political phoenix named Adolf Hitler Perhaps you ve heard of him Dodd has brought along his Want to know what it would be like to try to talk Satan out of being such a dick Consider reading In the Garden of Beasts Erudite but ineffectual historian, Dr William E Dodd was chosen to be Ambassador to Germany in the decade leading up to WWII, because President Roosevelt couldn t find anyone else willing to take on the job In 1933 Dodd was tasked with handling relations with a rabid and deranged political phoenix named Adolf Hitler Perhaps you ve heard of him Dodd has brought along his family Th...On November 9 10, 1938 Nazi Germany, using SA storm troopers and sympathetic civilians, carried out the Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass, a series of systematic attacks targeting Jewish homes and businesses Almost 100 people were killed and thousands were wounded and or arrested and sent to concentr...This story covers the Dodd family and their lives amongst the beast machine of Hitler s Nazi Germany Rosevelt asked Dodd to become the American ambassador to Hitler s Germany At that time Germany was in debt to America and owed loads of money and they looked like they were not going to pay so the need for the ambassador arose Dodd and his wife agreed to the position and so they left for Berlin, he also invited his two grown children Martha and Bill The lovely Martha appears in the story quit This story covers the Dodd family and their lives amongst the beast machine of Hitler s Nazi Germany Rosevelt asked Dodd to become the American ambassador to Hitler s Germany At that time Germany was in debt to America and owed loads of money and they looked like they were not going to pay so the need for the ambassador arose Dodd and his wife agreed to the position and so they left for Berlin, he also invited his two grown children Martha and Bill The lovely Martha appears in the story quite a bit as in the backdrop Hitlers rises to power and his evil spreads we follow her and her relationship with a communist Russian Martha when she arrived in Berlin found she liked Germany and the people and commented them as being better than the Parisian, obviously this was before Hitler showed his face and colors of evil ...I loved Erik Larson s The Devil in the White City , I found the subject matter fascinating and the writing fabulous In the Garden of Beasts is the second book I ve read by Larson and I m sorry to say the two don t compare.I ve read a fair number of books about the Holocaust and I did find the political maneuvering described in Garden interesting in a stomach turning, sickening kind of way But the people in this story never came to life for me, with the exception of Martha Dodd who I didn I loved Erik Larson s The Devil in the White City , I found the subject matter fascinating and the writing fabulous In the Garden of Beasts is the second book I ve read by Larson and I m sorry to say the two don t compare.I ve read a fair number of books about the Holocaust and I did find the political maneuvering described in Garden interesting in a stomach turning, sickening kind of way But the people in this story never came to life for me, with the exception of Martha Dodd who I didn t care for.I read an advance reader s copy so perhaps the final product will have some additional editing but what I read wasn t of the same caliber as The Devil in the White City , the pacing was relatively slow and there were places where the story was choppy I could ha...A few months ago, I finally figured out how to borrow audiobooks from the library and listen to them on my phone, which has been great for both my commute and my to read list lately I don t seem to have the time or inclination to sit down and read books for long periods of time, so this is helping me feel less useless Erik Larson s In the Garden of Beasts was one of the first books I downloaded, and I listened to it in February of 2017 Listening to a book detailing the slow rise of a fascist A few months ago, I finally figured out how to borrow audiobooks from the library and listen to them on my phone, which has been great for both my commute and my to read list lately I don t seem to have the time or inclination to sit down and read books for long periods of time, so this is helping me feel less useless Erik Larson s In the Garden of Beasts was one of the first books I downloaded, and I listened to it in February of 2017 Listening to a book detailing the slow rise of a fascist dictarship in 1930 s Germany while living in the early days of the Trump presidency wasan experience ...

English
21 January 2018

Erik Larson