This the first non fiction historical book that I have read about World War II. I had been drawn to it because of its title and the promise of understanding a little bit better what had possessed so many people to support a man who literally massacred hundreds of thousands of people just because of their ancestry. 
 To be honest I found the book a bit dry, but considering the source Larson used to tell the story it couldn't have been told any other way. The story is about the American ambassador to Germany at the height of the Nazi Reich's rise to power. 
 Ambassador Dodd is a man who is portrayed as both boring and righteous all at once. He seems to have his heart in the right place, but is such a weak man, full of so many insecurities that it doesn't really seem to matter what he believes. The few moments when the character seems like someone to like or support are so brief and limited that its not enough to care about his plight. The bureaucracies he must endure and the obvious and disgraceful American mentality that repayment of money owed to us by Germany was more important than human lives is repugnant. It explained to me a little more about where the bottom line for American foreign policy really lies, even then. 
 The author also tried to tell a love story throughout the unfolding darkness that was the Third Reich through Martha, Ambassador Dodd's daughter. She comes across as whiny and selfish and despite the authors attempt at humanizing her and perhaps even using her as an example of the American mentality regarding Germany at the time, her character is so indecisive that her ultimate choices seem almost like they fall on her lap rather than her coming to them through conviction. 
 Aside from these two the cast of characters is so large and confusing that as people get killed as the Nazi regime reaches its zenith, their deaths feel almost clinical. It was an interesting book if only for the historical perspective it provided of prewar Germany, but certainly not something I'd recommend to a casual history reader.