A globe-trotting newspaperman and author of 15 major works of fiction and history, William L. Shirer is best known for his pioneering work as a radio newscaster during Europe's march toward World War II. From Germany's forcible union with Austria and the Czech Crisisof 1938 to the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1945, Shirer spanned the Atlantic and kept Americans informed of the aggressive intentions of Hitler and the dynamics of Nazism in his memorable European News Round-Up broadcasts. By the time he left CBS radio in 1947, he had helped lay the foundation for modern international news broadcasting and achieved, with his "Fall of France" report, one of the biggest on-air scoops in history.

Shirer began his career as a foreign correspondent in 1925 when he joined the Paris office of the Chicago Tribune. Before moving to the newspaper's Central European Bureau (Vienna) in 1929, he had...