I checked this one out from my library. Although I had 14 days in which to read it, I finished it in much less time. It's filled with historical facts of Hitler, his henchmen, and pre-WW2 information of a type that most of us never knew. I was hooked on it from the first page. On the other hand, my husband who also read it, wasn't enamoured with it. He found it to be too full of the romantic exploits of the American ambassador's daughter, Martha Dodd. True, there WAS a lot of that, which made it all the more interesting to me. Maybe this is just naturally a woman's point of view. However I think that any WW2 buff would find it very interesting. Eric Larson is my kind of writer, and he has done nothing but improve with experience. His "Devil In the White City" was great, too. I highly recommend both!

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This book was just "OK". If you're a WWII history buff, then you might like it. It's a basically-uneventful account of the US Ambassador and his family's time in Germany in the years leading up to WWII. I found it a bit boring. Lots of facts and info I really wasn't interested in knowing in the first place. The subtitle, "Love, Terror, etc." is misleading. The only "love" involves the Ambassador's daughter, who, it appears, screwed anything that held still long enough. The "terror" was mostly on the part of the Germans... not the Ambassador or his family, who were generally unmolested the entire time they were there.

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If you have ever wondered how people could have closed their eyes to the atrocities that happened during the years before and during World War II in Germany, this book provides an excellent look at the country through the eyes of the American Ambassador and his family, and others close to the family.It is very well written and fleshed out by this award winning author. It reads more like a fictional story then an historical account, and it is hard to grasp that these things actually happened and the world just proceeded on its merry way while a sick leader (Hitler)was randomly murdering various ethnic groups and classes at will with no backlash. I was personally appalled to learn that even the United States did not "like" the Jews and generally felt some of the same feelings against them as did Hitler, but of course did not murder them. Makes me wonder if they were happy to leave that to psychopath that lived in and ruled Germany. My suggestion? Read this book...well worth the time.

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Larson is the king of weaving two or more historical stories into a fascinating narrative. Even though his books are non-fiction, they read closer to a novel than a historical document. In the Garden gives us the background of the Nazi's rise to power and the life and interaction of the American Ambassador and his family. As Ambassador Dodd is a man out of the element, Larson seems to struggle to give us a compelling story. A great deal of time is spent on the "wildish" daughter of the Ambassador and just plain name dropping. Larsen's earlier works have more character and a broader feel. In the Garden has its moments, but it finally feels more like a romance than a true historical narrative.

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A unusual look at Hitler's Germany 1933-34 from the perspective of an idealistic first-time ambassador and his daughter and son with just enough context to bring it to life. History as it was lived. Unique.

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This was a very interesting study of a slice of life in Nazi Germany shortly after Hitler became chancellor in 1933. Larson tells the story of William Dodd and his family during the time Dodd was Ambassador to Germany from August 1933 to December 1937.


Dodd was an unlikely choice for ambassador and was down the line in preference by President Roosevelt. He was a historian at the University of Chicago who thought he was destined for greater things. He and his family including his wife and two grown children moved to Berlin to assume the job of ambassador. Dodd pressed for American interests while letting it be known that he did not think much of the blustering Nazis even though he seemed to have been somewhat blind to the intensity of anti-Semitism and was casually anti-Semitic himself. He witnessed the forces of Hitler's newly installed regime that included casual beatings of Americans for trivial offences such as not giving the Nazi salute when an SS parade passed by. As time progressed, Dodd became more and more anti-Nazi and warned his superiors of the atrocities to come but was mostly ignored by them.

The book also told the story of Dodd's daughter, Martha, who became involved with several Nazi officers and fell in love with a Russian diplomat who was part of the KGB. The Russians actually tried to get Martha to be a spy for them but this ultimately came to naught.

I have read many accounts of Nazi Germany but this part of their early history was pretty much new to me. The story of the Dodds and how they interacted with Hitler and his gang of thugs made for interesting reading. I have read a few other works by Larson and have some others on my shelf waiting to be read that I hope to get to sometime soon.

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In the lead up to World War II, this family was in Berlin as the Ambassador from the United States. The daughter enjoyed the social aspects of the assignment, and the entire family was taken aback by the changes to Germany that Hitler was bringing in. It was an interesting look and a different viewpoint of the Third Reich.

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A taste of the tipping point when Germany still had ample opportunity to fight back the sadistic murdering Nazis. The tension of the book depends so much on knowing what will become and wanting to scream to the diplomats in Berlin, "wake up!" My only frustration was that I wish Larson had taken a little more time explaining the background of the compromise Hindenburg had made to put Hitler in as Chancellor in the first place. Guess I will have to research that background myself elsewhere.

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