In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Aug 09, 2012 stephanie rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, modern-euro-history, wwii, 2012

i am kind of confused as to what the goal of this book was, who we were supposed to care about, and what we were supposed to come away with.

got it. martha dodd was the daughter of our berlin ambassador in 1933-1937. she was pretty and men loved her and she loved having affairs. her father didn't come from a lot of money, was a jeffersonian democrat (how many times did he say that??) and didn't like people just throwing money away on parties. too bad most of foreign diplomacy happened at parties i am kind of confused as to what the goal of this book was, who we were supposed to care about, and what we were supposed to come away with.

got it. martha dodd was the daughter of our berlin ambassador in 1933-1937. she was pretty and men loved her and she loved having affairs. her father didn't come from a lot of money, was a jeffersonian democrat (how many times did he say that??) and didn't like people just throwing money away on parties. too bad most of foreign diplomacy happened at parties and not in offices.

i didn't feel badly for anyone in this, except maybe messersmith, who seemed to be the only real one that had a clue what was going on and also knew how to play the diplomatic game.

i think the book would have benefited from being either about william e. dodd, or martha dodd, rather than both. because there are two other people in the family basically never mentioned. so it's not really about family in berlin - especially because we don't get any of the relationship between martha and william. his hatred of excess in other people apparently didn't extend to his own family.

and then, since martha is in this book quite a bit - how can you completely ignore the fact that she was indeed a soviet spy? that she wasn't just with boris because of the love, but because she wanted to contact with the commintern? that she used her father and his knowledge to pass things along to other countries? how can you not even have in your epilogue the fact that she died in prague because by the time no one cared about her ties to communism, she didn't want to pay back taxes?

or perhaps mention the fact that "Ambassador Dodd's Diary" was EDITED by martha and bill jr, and there are no boxes anywhere that have diary entries like this suggests? and that the other main source was martha's own autobiography that she desperately wanted turned into a movie? i just don't understand, if this is meant to be informative historically, what the point of it was. i still don't get the impetus. was dodd effective or ineffective? does it matter? could anyone else have done better? larson spends most of the book on the year 1933, and then randomly runs through the last couple of years as if nothing happened. when A LOT WAS HAPPENING.

like i said. i finished the book very confused. i don't understand why it was written. if there was a thesis. if it was just trying to capture the feeling of berlin as an american there. if . . .

any suggestions welcome.

for book club on the 20th. total coincidence in timing with my last book choice. sheesh. ...more

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Jan 12, 2020 Steve Sarner rated it it was amazing

There’s no author I enjoy more than Erick Larson and this did not disappoint ! A lot to add to this review soon :)

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Jun 04, 2011 Rae rated it really liked it

Shelves: history-ww2

A fascinating read. Larson tells the story of William Dodd (and family) who became the ambassador to Germany during the Roosevelt administration. He served in this post from 1933 to 1937. As such he was a witness to the tension and brutality in Berlin during the early years of the Third Reich.

Good: I know this history fairly well and found it intriguing to read firsthand accounts of the beginnings of what would become a world war. Larson accurately portrays the worldwide apathy re any dangers t A fascinating read. Larson tells the story of William Dodd (and family) who became the ambassador to Germany during the Roosevelt administration. He served in this post from 1933 to 1937. As such he was a witness to the tension and brutality in Berlin during the early years of the Third Reich.

Good: I know this history fairly well and found it intriguing to read firsthand accounts of the beginnings of what would become a world war. Larson accurately portrays the worldwide apathy re any dangers the Hitler regime might pose. Not to mention the rampant anti-Semitism that was completely politically correct at the time.

Not as good: The author drops a multitude of names, which can be somewhat hard to sort out. Also, Dodd's daughter Martha has a number of affairs and they are mostly all mentioned in the book. I found them a distraction in many ways.

Why I read this: I spent a number of months in West Berlin in my junior year of high school and have been fascinated by much of WW2 history ever since. I couldn't pass up this book for just that reason.

Recommended.

Her father reached a similar moment of transformation. Throughout that first year in Germany, Dodd had been struck again and again by the strange indifference to atrocity that had settled over the nation, the willingness of the populace and of the moderate elements in the government to accept each new oppressive decree, each new act of violence, without protest. It was as if he had entered the dark forest of a fairy tale where all the rules of right and wrong were upended. (328)

With that speech, Dodd embarked on a campaign to raise the alarm about Hitler and his plans, and to combat the increasing drift in America toward isolationism; later he would be dubbed the Cassandra of American diplomats. He founded the American Council Against Nazi Propaganda and became a member of the American Friends of Spanish Democracy. At a speech...before a Jewish congregation, Dodd warned that once Hitler attained control of Austria--an event that appeared imminent--Germany would continue seeking to expand its authority elsewhere, and that Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia were at risk. He predicted, moreover, that Hitler would be free to pursue his ambitions without armed resistance from other European democracies, as they would choose concessions over war. (350)

To those who knew Dodd in Berlin and who witnessed firsthand the oppression and terror of Hitler's government, he would always be a hero...Late in life Messersmith applauded Dodd's clarity of vision. "I often think that there were very few men who realized what was happening in Germany more thoroughly than he did, and certainly there were very few men who realized the implications for the rest of Europe and for us and for the whole world of what was happening in the country more than he did. (354-55) ...more

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May 10, 2011 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: jewishstudies, nonfiction, library-book, kindle

Fascinating and depressing account of the years of Hitler's rise to power from the perspective of an unlikely American ambassador and his fickle daughter. Extremely engaging account. ...more

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Dec 10, 2011 Erin Black-Mitchell rated it really liked it

Reading this book made me realize how little I know about the Germans and life in pre-WWII. It read like a novel, which is nice since I didn't realize it was non-fiction when I checked it out! ...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Jen Peters rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Very informative about the years before the war, and especially about how America thought of Germany in such a critical period. I always wondered if our leaders knew what terrible things went on, both before and during the war.

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