Solid and interesting account of life under the Nazi regime in Vienna; the book mostly focuses on the 1938-1945 era. There is one long (and not hugely interesting) digression to the late Imperial era, which I suppose has some justification for background, but it does tend to slow up and interrupt the book. The other parts of it, though, are interesting, the more so since the author (a refugee himself) saw some of the events first-hand. ( )

4082 The Setting of the Pearl Vienna Under Hitler, by Thomas Weyr (read 13 Oct 2005) This is a 2005 book by a man born in Vienna who left there at age 11, returned there to get his Ph.D after World War Two, and then was a reporter. He tells of Hitler's takeover of Austria in good detail, and then relates the story of Vienna during the war, some of which account was not too interesting, though I think his research is well-done. The city was far too accepting of Nazis, probably due to the strong anti-Semitism there (that is where Hitler got his stupid ideas). Since the war Austria has exaggerated its resistance to Hitler, and Vienna has not regained the proud place in the world's cities it had before the war. This is a good book but not as interesting as I had hoped. ( )