Its Berlin 1933. William E. Dodd a mild-mannered academic from Chicago has to his own & everyone elses surprise become Americas first ambassador to Hitlers Germany in a year that proves to be a turning point in history. Dodd & his family notably his vivacious daughter Martha observe at first-hand the many changes
- some subtle some disturbing & some horrifically violent
- that signal Hitlers consolidation of power. Dodd has little choice but to associate with key figures in the Nazi party his increasingly concerned cables make little impact on an indifferent U.S. State Department while Martha is drawn to the Nazis & their vision of a New Germany & has a succession of affairs with senior party players including first chief of the Gestapo Rudolf Diels. But as the year darkens Dodd & his daughter find their lives transformed & any last illusion they might have about Hitler are shattered by the violence of the Night of the Long Knives in the summer of 1934 that established him as supreme dictator. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the times & with brilliant portraits of Hitler Goebbels Goering & Himmler amongst others Erik Larsons new book sheds unique light on events as they unfold resulting in an unforgettable addictively readable work of narrative history.