So one of the best books about WWII is William Shirer’s epic The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1961). Shirer is a fascinating narrator in part because he was there. (He’s also an excellent stylist, with a fluid, straightforward narrative flow.) He describes being at rallies in Berlin, about seeing Adolf Hitler and Herman Goring up close and personal: He was an America journalist stationed in Berlin during the 1930s (and has multiple bona fides about being a foreign correspondent in Europe, circa the 1920s-30s). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is phenomenal book. It changed my thinking and perspective on how brutal and cruel the Nazi regime was, and how foolish, in its own macabre way.
Now I’m tackling Shirer’s additional tome meant to explain and understand WWII, Collapse of the Third Republic (1969). In a nutshell Collapse tries to explain the complex history of early 20th-century France and how it could result in the demoralizing and catastrophic surrender of French forces and government in only one month at the outbreak of WWII in 1940. Shirer describes the tumultuous 1930s, including the riots of 1934 that weakened the French government (The Third Republic), from an eyewitness standpoint. He was there in Paris when many of the riots occurred.
The book is not an “easy read.” Although it’s very readable and lucid, it’s also 2000 pages, more or less, in my ebook version. I’m around page 500 so I’m a quarter of the way in, and still so much to go. But I like long books. If they’re worth it. And in this case, I think the answer is Yes.