William Shearer, born in 1904, is a well-known American historian and journalist. He was a correspondent in Paris, London and Rome. From 1926 to December 1941 he was in Germany, presenting the Chicago Tribune, and then the Columbia Broadcasting Service. Subsequently, from the fall of 1945, he again worked in Germany. Attended the Nuremberg trials. He is the author of a number of books, of which "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich "is most famous. The uniqueness of the book is in its documentary nature, enriched by personal perception of many events, their assessments by direct participants, in a deep analysis of many historical phenomena. Shearer achieves the greatest intensity in presenting historical material, which is quite natural, precisely with a combination of these factors; in the same place where the author's personal observations are absent, the book sins with some schematism.