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

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
Eric Larson,  488 pages, 2011


        William Dodd was the first American ambassador sent to Germany during Hitler's rise to power in 1933.  He brought his family with him, and in the next four years they lived in Berlin, bearing witness to Germany's transformation under Hitler.  Dodd worked as a history professor at the University of Chicago beforehand and was not Roosevelt's first choice for the position.  Initially, I was unsure of how engaging this family would be on paper, but I was sure Larson would find a way to make these people a little more compelling.  He did not disappoint in the the slightest.
        
         The Dodds become fascinating in ways I did not expect- The book reads like a suspense thriller where you know the ending ahead of time. We all know what happened after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, and Larson is able to produce a picture of life inside Germany before all of that.  He gives us a portrait of a family who were imperfect, well meaning, fairly middle class, and naive to a certain point. 

         William Dodd believed that he should live only on his paycheck his post as ambassador provided him, and this immediately set him apart not only from certain ideas of others in the State Department, but also at odds with diplomatic life within Berlin as well. I really felt for him as he fell further out of favor and became more and more alarmed at the Nazi Regime's practices and brutality.  There is a sense of total powerlessness and frustration as he must temper what he says, how he acts, and decides which functions to attend.  His daughter is also compelling, as a young woman who initially believes that the Nazi party was doing productive things in Germany and slowly becomes aware of their violent agenda.  Through lovers, friends, and her father, her perspective shifts radically during her stay in Berlin.

           Disturbing on many levels, In the Garden of Beasts offers its readers a different approach to history, one that hopefully will encourage the reader to investigate and read more on World War II. Great.