This is a terrific book! The level of detail packed into it is outstanding. This is the first Anthony Beevor book that I have read and I enjoyed it so much and wanted to learn in even greater detail that I have ordered several of his books before I have even finished this! This really does cover the A Z of the second World War. I have only just started reading about the 2nd World War so I have to be honest and say that I cannot compare it but I am sure that even if books by other authors are excellent as well that this would complement any other reading. Anthony Beevor is clearly someone who has an encyclopedic knowledge on the subject, and he has obviously researched the subject extensively. Te level of detail that he includes is really impressive. I would also highly recommend Stalingrad and D Day which are both riveting reads. The Second World War Despite having studied history at uni and read a lot of WW2 history, mostly focused on the origins and aftermath of the war, I realised I'd never actually read a chronologicial account of the war itself.
Anthony Beevor's account is exactly what I was looking for straightforward, well written and encompassing both the military and political battles that occurred. What I loved about most this book is that it gives you the context in which leaders had to make decisions. It very easy to look at WW2 events such as the Holocaust, Stalingrad, Battle of Midway etc in isolation but this book makes you just how much was going on at the same time. His account really brings home the brutality and the scale of the war.
It a long book, as you'd expect, but well worth reading if you have an interest in the war. The Second World War This is a monumental work that taught me so much I didn’t know about WW2. Covering the whole conflict necessarily sometimes particular aspects aren’t dealt with in great depth and giving information on which battalion was involved in which battle was TMI for me and distracting. It is a factual account rather than one of personal experiences, so if you want the latter it might not be for you.
Numerous times casualties of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands are mentioned, bringing home the absolute horror of that war and all wars. The sufferings of soldiers and civilians were unimaginable, and yet even today our political leaders are still ready to resort to war often for dubious reasons.
It seems crazy how a group of a few evil leaders could have engineered so much death and destruction, but they did. Sadly the same potential for that remains. Let’s hope we remember and learn from the dreadful lessons of the past described in this book. As the horrors of WW2 disappear from our collective memory, the risk of history repeating itself grows. The Second World War
World War II claimed lives than any other conflict in human history. The way it scarred people in so many places makes it one of the defining moments (probably the defining moment) in the modern history.
For USSR and its descendants, WWII has always been the main goalpost in History. The country paid a terrible price (40 million lives is the current consensus). There are very few families which came unscathed from that war an overwhelming majority lost relatives who fought, died in occupation or starved due to terrible conditions, so WWII is not some historical event we encountered it is something that we were part of, paying the price (both of my grandfathers fought and were lucky to come back; one of them had his parents killed by Germans when they took all 1,800+ Jews remaining in Yalta outside of the town and shot them; I can go on and on). Needless to say, WWII is a not just a historical event for me it is part of me and part of my family history.
Well, back to the book it is amazing. First of all, it is very comprehensive: the Author manages to give a robust overview both at a macro level, digging into major political events that shaped the War and at the same time to cover seemingly every single battle. This results in a great balance for a topic that could easily fill dozens of volumes.
One of the most important aspects of this book is a very strong attempt to remain objective. The Author does a really great job here: there are no favorites and no sacred cows. Mr. Beevor doesn't shy away from pointing out the opportunistic and erratic side of Sir Winston Churchill. He also has some good words for Stalin when they are due and he does a great job depicting the intricacies of the power struggle between the leaders of the Allies. In general, Mr. Beevor has few kind words to Allied leaders overall, showing numerous cases where shameless politicking took priority (it is ironic, how Poland, that fell the first victim of the War ended up a bargaining chip between the three allies with zero consideration for the suffering and aspirations of the Polish people).
One of the most profound realizations of this book is what a terrible price people paid for human folly. Time and again, there are examples of battles that were poorly planned, done out of hubris or in order to improve a general's self image and it is heart rending to read about so many young lives lost to that. And then, there is USSR, where tactical genius of Wehrmacht was countered with sheer number of people thrown into that meat grinder.
As I indicated above, WWII means a lot to me and my family history. As someone hailing from USSR (and brought up in the gloss of the official propaganda about the War), I find this book very fair. The Author has no illusions on the dictatorship that country was and he does a good job demonstrating the very successful game Stalin played to ensure that USSR extended its sphere of interests far beyond its original borders. If there was ever a great example of applying Machiavelli in practice, this is definitely the one.
Moreover, the book provides many detailed accounts for the one of the most suppressed and furiously opposed (by official propaganda) aspects of the Russian onslaught: the mass rape of women in Prussia and Germany. Soviet party line has always been that this was a lie coined by USSR's enemies and that incidents were extremely rare and always against the orders. The Author clearly dispels this lie with many detailed examples coming from many sources, showing that the War definitely exacerbated the best and the worst traits alike. The book gives an estimate of up to 3 million German (as well as their victims which included Jewish women and forced laborers) women raped over the course of that period.
To summarize, I am extremely happy with this book. I find it fair to all sides (including the Axis) of the conflict, comprehensive and very detailed. This is a book I'll keep and will definitely read again. If you are interested in WWII, read it you will not regret. The Second World War I am sure the author has researched this book thoroughly but I have to ask how did we win the war? All commanders were regarded as incompetent or a megalomaniac, his views of Montgomery, Eisenhower and Churchill in particular are negative. His dismissal of Mountbatten as being over promoted is an insult. Not just the allied leaders but the axis as well.
An over abundance of information about China is ridiculous particularly compared to the Burma campaign which hardly rates a mention, what about the River Kwai in Thailand? not just a film you know. He also ignores the brave fight by the Merchant Navy in their Arctic supply routes to Russia.
Having said that some of it is gripping but the ultimate feeling is one of frustration. The Second World War There are two interesting recent books out that detail the vast scope of WWII. I've bought both (and read other histories of the war), and can give some details as to their differences.
This book is a typical descriptive historical narrative of the war. It is great single source for those who haven't read a comprehensive history of it. It fairly and with good balance describes the political background and military events and while the writing is somewhat prosaic it is not 'dry', and it gives a well detailed overview of the events.
Hastings book Inferno (published in Britain as All Hell Let Loose) carries with it a lot personal observations from diaries, letters, etc of the participants, and clearly is written with the authors own subjective interpretation or points of view on the events, rather than being a pure description of the historical events. The writing is elegant and provocative, as befits the journalist background of the author.
If one has no knowledge of this titanic struggle I would start with Beevor's book so as to capture the events and timelines as they historically occurred, written in a very readable manner. On the other hand if one is familiar with most of the history I would recommend Hasting's book as a source of opinionated (but supported) insight, along with the many descriptions of the war by participants that are included in his narrative and relate to the historical events.
Both are excellent in their own ways. They provide: 1)in the terms of Beevor's book a well written and accurate single volume historical description of the war and 2) in Hastings a 'op ed' description with personal stories of the conflict that he has derived from letters, diaries, interviews etc. The Second World War No author writing about WWII can cover the entire conflict in one volume without choosing to emphasize certain material and paying less attention to other material. After all, Churchill took many volumes to discuss his experiences and points of view. Having read enormous amounts of WWII material over 50 years, here are what I feel Beevor chose as emphases and which led to both the strengths and weaknesses of the book.
Strength the detailed descriptions of the China Japan conflict with attention paid to it than in other one volume works
Strength An attempt, though overdone and repetitious, to discuss the use of rape and the casualness of killing civilians by all armies and at different intensities. War dehumanizes.
Strength Chapters on the Shoah (Holocaust) by shooting and by gas as two different and differentially organized events.
Strength Use of statements by common soldiers about what their experiences were on the different fronts. This is also a
Weakness vastly overdone quotations from ordinary soldiers about their experiences. How many times did we need to hear about lice and trench foot? Once was enough and other instances could have been referenced to one original description. Repetitive and overdone.
Weakness Horrendously judgmental character sketches of the major players written in a couple of sentences with no backup.
Weakness Overly focused on British activities.
Weakness Presentism Judging the events of the past using perspectives unknown at the time of the events.
Weakness Beevor just does not like Churchill and commits character assasination at every opportunity. One wonders if he even read Churchill's memoirs of the war to discover his thinking.
Weakness Writing Roosevelt off as a naive lightweight.
Weakness the maps, oy vey, the maps. Beevor commits the sin of using maps that often do not have the units he writes about in the text present on the maps. He regularly makes statements like it was obvious that General X had to attack on the line from A to B without either town on his maps. Frustrating!
Weakness Assuming that the US lack of desire to make troop movements to attempt to block the Red Army were silly and naive and the Cold War was the result. As the Italy campaign showed, attacks from the Mediterranean theatre might never have ended the war. And Russian troops had orders to start WWIII if we tried to take Berlin.
Worth reading for its scope and unique contributions just don't swallow the human judgments and one liners about people's characters as gospel. The Second World War Just purchased this book and it is a mega size retelling of the Second World War. Not being a historian or general reader of history in any way, I decided to jump in at one of the chapters about half way through the book: the chapter titled Barbarossa. This, of course, as most readers of history almost certainly know, is about the invasion of Russia. I knew a little of this, reasoning that if this chapter read well and I enjoyed it, then the rest of the book would probably be of the same calibre.
Within minutes, I was totally absorbed in the story. After a few initial names that I didn’t recognise, simply because I hadn’t read any preliminary chapters, I just couldn’t put the book down. Antony Beevor writes so well and was maintaining my interest throughout. I even felt that I was reading a novel at one stage, for his little asides on detail drew pictures right before your eyes. Here’s Beevor, for example, describing the Russians getting ready for their invasion:
“In the early hours of 22 June, right down the belt of eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea, tens of thousands of German officers began glancing at their synchronized watches with the light of a shaded torch. Right on time, they heard aero engines to their rear. The waiting troops looked up into the night sky as massed squadrons of the Luftwaffe streamed overhead, flying towards the gleam of dawn along the vast eastern horizon.”
Such descriptions bring a certain beauty to the book even though it describes the many horrors of war.
If you are anything like me you can dip into the odd chapter here and there (basically due to time constraints) and still be quickly immersed in this story of the Second World War. This is because Mr Beevor is such a great writer, who has written here such a fine and thorough history of the war, I doubt if there will be a better rendition for a very long time.
The book is not only for the interested history buff. It is for general readers like myself. People who just want to get a hold a story told in such a way that it will educate and entertain them at the same time. Top marks to Antony Beevor for achieving this. Highly recommended.
I hope you find my review helpful. The Second World War
A masterful and comprehensive chronicle of World War II, by internationally bestselling historian Antony Beevor.
Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the worlds premier historians of WWII. His multi award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, the Second World War.
In this searing narrative that takes us from Hitlers invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 to V J day on August 14, 1945 and the wars aftermath, Beevor describes the conflict and its global reach one that included every major power. The result is a dramatic and breathtaking single volume history that provides a remarkably intimate account of the war that, than any other, still commands attention and an audience.
Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevors grand and provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on this complex, tragic, and endlessly fascinating period in world history, and confirms once that he is a military historian of the first rank. The Second World War