Also, do you have an opinion whether Fall of the Third Reich is a creditible resource? I think I will buy it soon.
I should put an explanation on my profile page - both where the articles come from and what my crazy project is all about.
I find all the articles on Microfiche at U.C. Santa Cruz. They have files full of reels for the New York Time, San Francisco Chronicle, L.A. Times, and more. I stick to the NYT because they have the broadest coverage. The microfiche readers are connected to printers that the public can use for no additional charge. (Parking is $6, however.) I can sit and run through the reels for about 6 hours before I get too punchy to continue. That gets me through about one to one-and-a-half months. I take all my copies home and do a cut and tape process to put the articles in 8 1/2 X 11 format for scanning. I upload the images to photobucket and then generate links for posting here. Those I download to Word documents, which I post when the big day comes. I estimate conservatively that I spend about 20 hours to get one month's worth of articles ready to post.
As for The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I think it is an amazing eyewitness account by a trained journalist. Shirer was in Europe for all during the thirties (I think) and spent the war years in England. He was in the audience when Hitler made some of his major speeches. On rare occasions Shirer lapses into the first person when he wants to relate his personal memories or relate what was in his diary. Third Reich is really thorough. Shirer might have a left-leaning bias, but it doesn't distort his reporting enough to diminish its value. He is clearly anti-Nazi. I don't recall him showing such hostility to Stalin or the Soviet Union. But the book is not about Stalin so it doesn't bother me. Other freepers may have a different opinion based on more knowledge. Anyhow, the book is 1143 pages of fascinating history.
If you are speaking of 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich', as long as you are aware of the author's bias, it can be an excellent source of information. It's a very good place to start for an overview of the period.
I highly recommend “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William Shrier. Like Par says he can be biased, but I cant think of an author that is not. In the forward of his book he even admits that there is a degree to bias to it since he lived many of the events. However he does for the most part report factually and does point out in his text when his opinion is involved. If you read objectively you will get a lot out of this book. I also recommend the “Berlin Diary” by the same author.