"In the Garden of Beasts" - A Must Read!

This is my first book review using my blog as a forum.  I hope to have more in the future as I come across well-written or alternatively poorly-written books:

_____________________

I am a huge fan for Erik Larson's books - having read The Devil in White City and Thunderstruck and found both books to be brilliantly researched and written.  When I saw that he had written new book, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, I immediately checked to see if it was available at my local library.  Unfortunately it wasn't immediately available but I put a hold on it and finally got the message a month later that it had arrived and was waiting for pickup at the library.   I ran straight away to pick up the copy and started devouring this book.

Anyone who even has a moderate interest in Nazi Germany should read this book.  It is a fascinating tale of an American family - the US Ambassador, his wife and two adult children - in Berlin from 1933-1934 at the beginning of the Nazi regime.  Larson's writing style feels fiction-like with his brilliantly descriptive imagery of Berlin and the historical figures of the time but it is horrifyingly non-fiction.  Yes, in hindsight, the world agrees that something should have been done to limit the power of Hitler and the rest of the Nazi elite but what is shocking is how much the US was complicit in turning their heads away.  While we all know it was a difficult time in the United States (recovering from the Great Depression) and that Germany owed some $1.2 billion to American creditors, it still shocks the core that atrocities were happening so flagrantly in Germany and these horrors were completely evident from the early stages of Hitler's reign, but nothing was done about it except some minor wrist slapping.

Of particular interest is Ambassador Dodd's daughter, Martha who was at first completely enchanted with the Nazis and had some deep personal and (in some instances) sexual relationships with elite members of the Nazi Party.  How her views of these 'wonderful people' changed over that first year of living among them.  How she was a useful 'instrument' for the personal and political issues at hand from both the Soviet Union and the Nazis. 

Another interesting tidbit was the considerable Anti-Semitism that was evident in our own country.  Not Roosevelt, of course, but so many of the people within the government and other positions of power.  Some of the key people in government would routinely use Anti-Semitic epithets to describe the Jews.  According to Larson, a poll taken in in the 1930s found that "41 percent of those contacted believed Jews had 'too much power in the United States'; and found that one-fifth wanted to 'drive Jews out of the United States'.  (A poll taken...in 2009 would find that the total of Americans who believed Jews had too much power had shrunk to 13 percent.)" (Larson 41)  Why correct-minded people would think that something could be done about Germany when our own country ran rife with the same beliefs held by the Third Reich is delusional. 

I highly recommend In the Garden of Beasts to anyone who has an interest in Nazi Germany, US and/or World history or just wants to enjoy a well written and researched book.  I also recommend Larson's books, The Devil in White City and Thunderstuck.