In the Garden of Beasts: by Erik Larson | Summary & Analysis: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

By IRB Media

Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis

• Summary of book

• Introduction to the Important People in the book

• Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Oct 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943427956

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SUMMARY

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson explores several crucial years in Berlin through the eyes of the US ambassador and his family. Their experiences serve as both a cautionary tale about the insidiousness of evil and a harbinger of the hard realization that the rest of America was forced to make in a few short years.

In 1933, George Messersmith, US Consul General in Berlin, awaited the naming of a new ambassador amid increasing brutality, fanaticism, and corruption under the Nazi regime. Messersmith was frustrated that no one back home realized how bad it was. Most US officials figured that Adolf Hitler would become more moderate over time. Their chief concern was getting Germany to pay back $1.2 billion owed to US bond holders in the aftermath of World War I. Hitler talked of paying, but Messersmith thought he was just buying time to re-arm Germany while making empty pledges of peace.

William Dodd, longtime chairman of the history department at the University of Chicago, was also feeling dispirited. He wanted more time to work on a massive history of his native Old South. He thought obtaining an easy diplomatic post might allow him more time to write. But he decided that he was not duplicative enough to be a diplomat, and let the idea drop.

In June of 1933, much to Dodd’s surprise, President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered him the ambassadorship in Berlin. Ambassadors usually were wealthy and well-connected, which Dodd was not, though he spoke German and studied