20th Century Journey: A Memoir of a Life and the Times

In this remarkable memoir, journalist-historian William L. Shirer (1904-1993) describes his Midwest upbringing plus his young newspaper days in Paris and Europe. Writing a half century later, Shirer discusses growing up in Chicago and Cedar Rapids (Iowa) as horse-and-buggies gave way to autos and airplanes. Then it's off to Paris, where with incredible luck he landed a newspaper job during a visit in 1925. Shirer met an incredible number of notables, and here skillfully describes Clarence Darrow, Jack Dempsey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mahatma Gandhi, Isadora Duncan, Gerturde Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, Douglas MacArthur, Grant Wood, etc. Along the way, readers see Shirer's humanely skeptical view of society, flavored by growing taste for wine, women, and song. The author also captures the sights, sounds, and feel of his beloved Paris; this book made a nice travel companion on a recent trip. Readers should enjoy every page, from Shirer's Midwest youth to his bachelor days in 1920's Paris. The latter were tempered by the approach of The Great Depression, Nazism, and war - Shirer would later report from Nazi Germany (don't miss his outstanding bestsellers BERLIN DIARY, NIGHTMARE YEARS 1930-1940, and RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH). Historians, students, and others should peruse these pages to feel the rhythms of life in the first half of the 20th Century. Shirer's immense talent and easy prose make a remarkable read. He followed this book with two more excellent memoirs (NIGHTMARE YEARS and RETURN OF THE NATIVE 1945-88). This is a superbly moving memoir, as perhaps we should expect from such a talented man.

So begins volume 1 of Shirer's 4 volume memoirs. As the title indicates, this volume covers 1904-1930. Shirer talks about his growing up in the midwest, his college year at Coe College in Iowa, and his subsequent experience in Europe. There is considerable interesting material about extensive ex-pat literary community in Paris. Also, there is a nice segment on Shirer's coverage of Lindbergh's landing in Paris. As discussed in the third official installment of the memoirs (Native's Return), Shirer wanted the Volume II to focus on his encounters with Gandhi, but Simon and Schuster turned down the idea and the second installment. So Shirer ended up going with Little, Brown. And the Gandhi volume (which I would consider either volume 1.5 or 4) was later published as a separate volume.

This book is a remarkable odyssey the author takes us on. From William L. Shirer's heartland American boyhood to Al Capone's Chicago...on to the wild party that was Paris in the Roaring Twenties...then London, Berlin, Vienna, and Rome where the implacable movement of great events was forging the world's destiny. Exciting reading!

In this remarkable memoir, journalist-historian William L. Shirer (1904-1993) describes his childhood in Chicago and Cedar Rapids, plus his career as a young reporter in Paris and Europe from 1925-1930. Readers see this young man mature as the horse-and-buggy gave way to automobiles and airplanes. We also learn from his humane yet skeptical view of society. Shirer met an incredible number of the day's notables, and here skillfully describes Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ghandi, Jack Dempsey, Isadora Duncan, Gerturde Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, Grant Wood, etc. The author also captures the sights, sounds, and flavor of his beloved Paris; this book made a nice travel companion on a recent trip. I enjoyed reading of his young bachelorhood in the heady Paris of the late 1920's, tempered by shadows of Depression, Nazism, and war on the horizon. Future historians and students should read these pages to feel the rythyms of the early 20th Century. Shirer's immense talent and easy-reading prose led to three exceptional memoirs (this one, NIGHTMARE YEARS-1984, RETURN OF THE NATIVE-1989), plus his outstanding bestsellers on Nazi Germany, BERLIN DIARY-1941, RISE AND FALL OF THIRD REICH-1960, plus NIGHTMARE YEARS.

Shirer's moving account of his formative years in Chicago, Cedar Rapids, and as a young reporter in Paris ranks as solid autobiographical writing. I like how this renowned journalist parallels history with a revealing narrative of his youthful yearnings, setbacks, and rebellious insights. Future historians will read this volume to feel the rhythms of everyday life from 1904-1930. Career, personality, and luck exposed young Shirer to many notables, and his portraits of acquaintances like Hemmingway, Sinclair Lewis, Isadora Duncan, and Eamon De Velera add spice to the narrative. Some academic historians jealously dismiss Shirer's best-selling books, but I find his eyewitness accounts illuminating and his prose superior. The first of three volumes, this memoir is more personally revealing than The Nightmare Years, Shirer's superb account of Nazi Germany and A Native's Return, his homecoming finale. Writes Shirer in the introduction, "...it is an interesting fate being an American in the Twentieth Century. I am glad it was mine."