In The Garden Of Beast Summary

Erik Larson is the author of the New York Times bestseller In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. He is has written four other nonfiction bestsellers. (“About the Author”) When he wrote In the Garden of the Beasts he traveled to Berlin and went to the same places the main people were. As another testament to his dedication to retelling history in the most precise way possible, Erik also dug through extensively of troves of primary sources of journals and letters. He does these things to going to deliver the best and most accurate. To summarize the In the Garden of Beasts, it is about an ambassador and his daughter in Berlin during Hitler’s rise to absolute power in 1933-1937. It begins with Dodd,

As a diplomat, Dodd had to represent the United States and president Roosevelt. After each attack on an American, he had to discuss with Nazi officials and tell them it needs to stop. He also had to attend parties and gatherings like the Little Press Ball. Dodd’s omissions to do things were as important as what he does, he never went to Nazi party rallies as he felt those would be endorsements. His ambassadorship took a turn after the Night of the Long Knives, after which Dodd described his job as “watching and carefully doing nothing.” Part of the diplomatic experience for his was criticism from the Department of State. So because of the attacks, parties, not doing specific things, being there during the Night of the Long Knives, and constant criticism, the book strongly focused on what Dodd did as a

From this view, Nazis might dislike the United States, and therefore dislike Dodd and his intentions in their country. Dodd’s views were competing with the Nazi’s fascist views. Under these circumstances, Hitler pulled out of the League of Nations, and in 1936 Hitler violated the treaty by invading Austria, but little outcry came from most European governments and the United States. The reason the US and other countries were so willing to do anything for peace is that they didn’t want war. He eventually invaded Poland in 1939 which launched WWII. (Brinkley) Hitler violated the treaty which was signed at the end of WWI which many Germans hated, but countries were apathetic to the violation and only wanted peace. As far as whatever the author’s pastime affected the book, I don’t think it did. This is because many of his sources are either the journals of many characters, or writings they did later in life. If he used mostly secondary sources he might only read the documents that are the most appealing. I think because he stuck to original sources Erik’s pastimes didn’t affect what he wrote. As a final point I recommend this book to anyone, but not to APUSH students. In the Garden of Beasts it has little to do with US history, but more with Nazi/German history. The contents are mostly focused on Dodd and Martha, and the rise of Hitler’s Berlin and the