In The Garden Of Beasts

Dodd who in 1933 became america s first ambassador to hitler s regime and his scandalously carefree daughter martha.

In the garden of beasts. They and the rest of their family settled in a grand old house on the city s central park the tiergarten in literal translation the garden of beasts. In the garden of beasts. 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. Erik larson is a prize winning journalist and narrative historian.

Amazon best books of the month may 2011. In the garden of beasts which takes its name from tiergarten the park across the street from this residence though animal garden is a less lurid translation would be smugly heavy. In the garden of beasts. A mild mannered chicago professor becomes america s first ambassador to hitler s germany just before the nazis began to assert an iron grip across europe.

Love terror and an american family in hitler s berlin by erik larson. Larson recounts the career of the american ambassador to germany. In the garden of beasts is a vivid portrait of berlin during the first years of hitler s reign brought to life through the stories of two people. Ambassador dodd an unassuming and scholarly man is an odd fit among.

I just finished reading this compelling and frankly somewhat terrifying account by erik larson of the brief ambassadorship of william e. His daughter martha was 24 years old and chose to come along for the adventure and to escape a dead marriage to a new york banker. In the garden of beasts. Love terror and an american family in hitler s berlin is a 2011 non fiction book by erik larson.

Dodd in berlin from 1933 to 1934 at the time of adolf hitler s rise to absolute power. His books include isaac s storm thunderstruck and in the garden of beasts and have combined sales of nearly 6 million copies and been published in 14 countries. It recounts the early years of germany s nazi regime from the perspective of the american ambassador william dodd and his family in berlin the family watches with growing horror as hitler increases his dictatorial control over germany rearms. Love terror and an american family in hitler s berlin by erik larson is a non fiction book published in 2011.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre göring 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. 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.