In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

Erik Larson, New York Times bestselling author of Devil in the White City, delivers a remarkable story set during Hitler's rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Nazi Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago...show more

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448 pages

Average rating: 7.23

74 RATINGS

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5 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

turnpikekid
Dec 28, 2023
10/10 stars
Erik Larson has become one of my absolute favorite history writers. Reading this book I almost didn't feel as if I was reading history, but more a suspense horror novel. This is an important book, a history of Hitler's initial rise to power and the way in which the United States ignored the absolute evil acts that were occurring and act sooner.
Anonymous
Dec 28, 2023
6/10 stars
Meh.
Anonymous
Dec 04, 2023
8/10 stars
I've rediscovered the library, if only because they now offer ebooks and audiobooks. This is my first ebook loan and I devoured it. I heard about this book on the NY Times book review podcast and it piqued my interest.

The subtitle of this book is Love, Terror and An American Family in Hitler's Berlin. This book doesn't focus so much on Hitler as it does the Dodd family who ends up in Berlin as a result of the father's ambassadorship from Presiden...read more
KikiStoneCreek
Jun 03, 2023
8/10 stars
Fascinating book. Really gives you a different perspective on what was going on in Berlin as Hitler rose to power. Terrifying, actually!
AlexCruse
Jan 03, 2023
8/10 stars
4 stars.

While not my favorite from Larson, it was still a solid, well-researched piece. It was interesting to read about the changes happening within Germany shortly after Hitler's rise and the ways in which the writing was on the wall for the whole world to see and swiftly ignore.

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