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THE LONG NIGHT

Steve Wick

William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Newsday Senior Editor and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Steve Wick has written an in-depth history of legendary journalist William Shirer, who reported on the rise of the Nazi Party from Berlin in the 1930s.

When William L. Shirer agreed to start up the Berlin bureau of Edward R. Murrow's CBS News in the 1930s, he quickly became both the most trusted and most determined reporter in all of Europe. He did not fall for the Nazi propaganda, as some of his esteemed colleagues did, and fought against both Nazi censorship and American disdain for his re-lentless tactics. He warned of the consequences if the Nazis were not stopped, all the while developing close ties to the party's elite and maintaining contacts whose allegiances could not be won by other re-porters, thus obtaining a unique perspective of the party's rise to power. From the Night of the Long Knives to his removal at bayonet-point from the broadcast center in Vienna during Anschluss, and from the front lines of Germany's invasion of France to his coverage of the Nur-emberg trials and the Nazis' demise, Shirer redefined the importance of journalism. Here, thanks to Steve Wick's unique access to Shirer's archives including never-before-seen journals and letters The Long Night fleshes out the details of the maverick journalist's adventures in Europe, delivering a new, rich perspective on the Third Reich. Steve Wick is a senior editor at Newsday and the author of "Bad Company: Drugs, Hollywood and the Cotton Club Murder", among others. He has been a journalist for 30 years and has won dozens of writing and reporting awards, including sharing in two Pulitzer Prizes for local reporting, and Columbia University's prestigious Berger Award for feature writing. He lives in Cutchogue, Long Island.

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Book Published 2011-08-02 by St. Martin's Press

Comments

Steve Wick makes excellent use of Shirer's letters and papers to chronicle his often fraught relationships . . . A seasoned journalist, Wick knows how to tell a good story, and for long stretches his book reads like a novel . . . [It] has much of interest to say about the life of a foreign correspondent in the war-torn Europe of the 1930s and early 1940s.

Wick offers an absorbing and very detailed account, the perfect companion piece to Shirer's masterwork.

A gripping account of a courageous journalist's efforts to alert the world to Hitler's plan, and an engaging discussion of the relationship between journalism and personal integrity, which is as relevant today as it was then.

It's this Shirer -- the human being, a man of determination and steely nerve -- that Mr. Wick gets onto the pages of his book.

Steve Wick tells the human story behind William Shirer's brilliant and perceptive radio broadcasts from Nazi Berlin. Making extensive use of Shirer's private papers, he succeeds in incorporating the high politics, the everyday and the personal in a single, elegantly-written and engaging narrative.

The Long Night is indeed an adventure story, with short chapters and a fast-paced narrative drive. But Mr. Wick has documented the story with scrupulous attention to detail, too, drawing on Shirer's published works as well as his papers and correspondence.

Illuminating . . . Wick has done an excellent job in bringing together the man's life and work in this detailed and probing biography.

A thought-provoking and accessible exposition about the man, the times in which he worked, and the book itself.

Working as a foreign correspondent in Hitler's Germany was a harrowing experience, but William L. Shirer was among those who delivered exceptional journalism despite the circumstances. In The Long Night, Steve Wick skillfully describes Shirer's courage and persistence during these years.

Thorough, fast-paced, and absorbing.

A suspenseful recasting of the same period covered in Berlin Diary, using the published diary but more importantly the original handwritten pages Shirer smuggled out of Berlin . . . Wick has used his resources scrupulously and illuminates, more than does the 1941 book, the heavy personal toll that remaining in Berlin took on Shirer and his family.

In Steve Wick's talented hands, The Long Night puts you in the shoes of William Shirer and lets you experience the frightful, yet fascinating buildup of the Nazi regime for yourself. This account of one gutsy journalist witnessing history in the making is top-notch, an engrossing page turner that will have you eager to see what happens next. The Long Night stands out as a keen telling of one man's eventful life, while also offering a unique perspective on an important moment in time. A compelling read.

An intimate portrayal of a pioneering broadcasting icon.