The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by journalist William L. Shirer was the first definitive history of Nazi Germany in English.

Shirer, a radio reporter for CBS, covered Germany for many years until being forced to flee just before World War II. This thousand-page book, first published in 1959 and still in print, is not just an objective examination, but colors its historically accurate information with denounciation of the evils of Nazism and tyranny.