The Second World War

World War II claimed more 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.

Library shelves are now jammed with books about the second world war. These histories of the war seem to become more nuanced, better written, more insightful and more absorbing with each year. Anthony Beevor's massive story of the war, The Second World War, stands at the pinnacle of these histories.Beevor is trained in the arts and theories of war. He studied the art of warfare under John Keegan, one of the greatest military minds of the 20th Century, served in the British military, and is married to the daughter of Duff Cooper, one of the major figures in the Churchill government during the war. Beevor started his literary life as a novelist and his major works, including this one, read like novels. Beevor tells the many stories of the war always with one eye on the personal experiences of the combatants, frequently hideous experiences, but so important to understanding the emotional side of the century's greatest conflict.Beevor sets this history apart from most other histories of the war in his ability to connect events in widely zones. For example, Hitler's insistence on securing German dominance of the Balkan states in the early spring of 1941, following his rapid conquest of France, led to what turned out to be a fatal delay in the invasion of Russia. This invasion started in June 1941 but was stalled and eventually blunted by the lethal Russian winter campaign of 1941-42. In addition, the entry into the war of the United States after its naval forces were bombed at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 enabled Stalin to shift vital forces from Russia's Far Eastern theater back to the Western front, reinforcing the defenses against the German machine. The story of the Russian campaign, probably the single most important engagement of the war, is made more complete by Beevor's analysis of the complex events enabling Russia to fight an increasingly effective war against Germany.Beevor treats each major battle in the war with great clarity and almost novelistic skill. The Luftwaffe attacks on Britain in the late summer of 1940, when the fate of Britain was in the hands of very few pilots flying very few airplanes, has been told many times but none to my knowledge raised the reader's tension and fears as well as this account. This was a battle that Hitler desperately wanted to win. His attempt to break Britain, if it had succeeded, could have changed the course of the war.Europe was the bloodiest theater of the war but the Far Eastern campaigns, in which Japan assembled as violent a war machine as anything in Europe, were equally thrilling and important. Beevor tells the story of the American march across the Pacific, island hopping towards the Japanese homeland, with the same sense of drama and uncertainty as in the European story. The Japanese had occupied and subjugated most of China, they controlled most of Indonesian and the Burmese peninsula. Their navy was strong and well-trained. Gradually, however, the ability of the Americans to build ever-greater numbers of battleships and destroyers, ultimately ending in the release of two atomic bombs into two major Japanese cities overcame the initial Japanese advantages.By early 1943, the Allies began bombing the German homeland and the Russian army, having staved off the German near-occupation of Stalingrad, began its gradual grinding down of the German army. Beevor, who has written a marvelous history of the battle of Stalingrad, is able to convey a sense of the horror and desperation of this battle that few historians could convey.This is a great history of a complex and horrific war. If only one book can be read on this war - given a list of books that now number into the tens of thousands - one could not imagine a better single book that tells the story more completely. It is a gripping history.

This hardcover book normally retails above $222. (compare other booksellers websites)The "used" copy sold below $40 was VERY clean & did not appear to have been read.Amazon found a great deal for us

If you're looking for a book to cover all the aspects of the WW2, then this is it! I've covered 200 pages so far and have enjoyed reading it. It's wonderfully written and provides details right from how the war began and covers the sequence of events that took place across the world. It also gives a great insight about what the soldiers and civilians experienced during the times of turmoil. All in all, it's a captivating big book and a must buy for every history buff.

L'effetto è quello di leggere resoconti di comportamenti di pura follia.Non è possibile comprendere a fondo le ragioni della incommensurabile mostruosità che ha attanagliato il mondo intero in quegli anni.Nel leggere queste terrificanti pagine, mi sono ritrovato a scuotere la testa, incapace di accettare le morti, le violenze, le distruzioni inflitte da uomini su propri simili.

En un genero saturado de libros de todo tipo y calidad, la obra de Beevor es novedosa en el tratamiento de los hechos y los personajes. No es la historia de las decisiones de líderes míticos e infalibles. Al contrario. De la obra, el lector puede concluir que las estrategias y campañas debes su éxito al esfuerzo de los combatientes y oficiales, además de diversos factores aleatorios y no de los planes de los protagonistas. A veces incluso a pesar de ellos.Otro punto valioso de la obra es no limitarse a las grandes acciones militares, que muchas veces ocupan un lugar secundario en la narración de los hechos. Beevor se centra en los dramas humanos que se desarrollaron durante el conflicto y las atrocidades cometidas por alemanes, japoneses, chinos, británicos, rusos, americanos y otros. Enseña que a pesar de que indiscutiblemente los nazis y los imperialistas japoneses cometieron crímenes imposibles de olvidar o perdonar, ninguno de los países protagonistas queda exento de responsabilidad contra civiles e incluso contra su misma población.Esta obra es al menos tan recomendable como otros escritos del autor: Stalingrado, Berlin, Las Ardenas.

Lo primero es que la lectura del libro engancha como la más apasionante de las novelas, la segunda que abarca todos los escenarios de la guerra mundial, y que refleja los horrores de la guerra, de los campos de concentración, del holocausto, etc. Hace un estudio psicológico de los protagonistas (Churchill, Hitler, Musolini, Stalin, Roseevelt, Patton, Rommel, Yamamoto, etc.), y también de los soldados, de errores y aciertos, en pocas palabras el libro es Historia y buena Literatura con Mayúsculas, y algo muy importante, describe los horrores de la guerra de tal manera, que no creo que nadie que lea el libro pueda justificar bajo ninguna causa o pretexto, que puedan producirse guerras.