"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. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly 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."

Acquired via PaperBackSwap. (Unabridged on 11 CDs; read by Stephen Hoye)

In the years leading up to World War II, William Dodd is appointed as the United States ambassador to Germany. He moves his family to Berlin and they become ensconced in the political social scene of the time. Dodd is slow to realize what's really happening in Germany, but when he does, it's too late to have any lasting effect. Meanwhile, his daughter Martha, beautiful and a social butterfly, manages to interweave herself into many of the bigger social gatherings, rubbing noses with some of the bigger players within the Nazi party. She, too, realizes too late that maybe not all is as wonderful as it seems on the surface.

Erik Larson is one of the few authors that I will return to for non-fiction. This one, however, may be my least favorite of his that I've read thus far. Compared to some of his other books, this one just didn't pull me in. I found it tedious and boring, and it was difficult to keep track of all the names moving in and out of the Dodd's lives. I guess I was waiting for some climax that never came, given the subject matter. I realize that Larson was elaborating on historical fact and worked with what was there, but I feel like if he was going to engage a reading public with facts from the WWII era, he should've chosen someone with more influence to really engage the reader.

Sending off to PBS member. Enjoy! :')

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