William L. Shirer

William Lawrence Shirer (February 23, 1904 - December 28, 1993) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian, who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly works for more than 50 years. Shirer was born in Chicago and graduated from Coe. Originally a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and the International News Service, Shirer was the first reporter hired by Edward R. Murrow for what would become a CBS radio team of journalists, and he became known for his broadcasts from Berlin, from the rise of the Nazi dictatorship through the first year of World War II (1940). With Murrow, he organized the first broadcast world news roundup, a format still followed by news broadcasts. Shirer wrote more than a dozen books including Berlin Diary (published in 1941); The Collapse of the Third Republic (1969) and a three-volume autobiography, Twentieth Century Journey (1976 to 1990). Shirer received a 1946 Peabody Award for Outstanding Reporting and Interpretation of News for his work at CBS. His book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, won the 1961 National Book Award for Nonfiction and Carey-Thomas Award for non-fiction.