The stark contrast of good and evil in Rise & Fall is indeed gripping, and the Rise & Fall is an excellent book. Although Shirer never says so directly, there can be no doubt that he loathed the Nazis with every fiber of his being. (And rightly so). But he did not let that loathing turn into blind rage. Instead, he harnessed it with rigorous scholarship and intellectual discipline to contruct, brick by unyielding brick, a brilliant, undeniable, unchallengable, beacon of truth. Each brick is anchored in place by a supporting footnote. It is a blazing testament. The Collapse is a far more subtle human canvas - it has good and evil, and much between, brought out in many shades, and interwoven. History can be complex, subtle, confusing, and susceptible to different interpretations. The Collapse demonstrates this. While Rise & Fall is to be recommended to all high school students (i.e., there would be no harm in making it a part of the compulsory core curriculum)because its specific factual content is essential to an understanding of the 20th century, and because it is a story of brutal totalitarianism that must not be forgotten, The Collapse is to be recommended for entirely different reasons. Whereas the Rise & Fall is about the stark evil of a particular time and place, The Collapse is timeless. The Collapse is about the broad range of human strengths and weaknesses - love, hate, jealousy, greed, envy, corruption, loyalty, treachery, perfidy, zeal, venality, flabbiness, laziness, selfishness and selflessness, cowardice and courage, foolishness and wisdom, failure and redemption, defeat and vindication. It shows that persons in positions of political power are as human as the rest of us, and are subject to the same pressures that beset us all. It teaches one to appreciate, and be tolerant of, the conflicting pressures and difficulties of public office, and, at the same time teaches a healthy skepticism of political leaders., ISBN13: B002MRYYHE ISBN10: B002MRYYHE Material Type: hardcover