I’m looking for a book that will bring me up to speed on the run up to WWII as well as the strategic execution of the war from all sides. Most books seem to focus on particular regions or campaigns. I understand why since it was so long and wide ranging and could be hard to put together in one cohesive book.
I want to understand the following:
The rise/fall of Hitler/Nazi powers.
The military strategy used by the Nazi’s to take over Europe and northern Africa.
How Japan entered the war and why.
I don’t want to read about:
Tactical execution of specific missions.
DDay, other than it’s strategic impact.
Personal stories of triumph.
The state of affairs back home or the impact here in the US.
Quirky one-shot’s that didn’t have huge, theaterwide impact (ie the whole Valkyrie thing)
I generally want to understand WWII from a strategic point of view. I rather it was one good book, under 1000 pages if possible, with maps etc… to follow the action. Hope this makes sense.
Two books that cover the period 1944-1945 well serve you well. Retribution: The Battle for Japan 1944-1945 and *Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 *, both by Max Hastings.
I just purchased A World at Arms by Gerhard Weinberg which is a well-regarded one-volume history of the war. I have only dipped into it so I can’t offer much of a review. The focus appears to be on the grand-strategic level so if you want more military analysis you might want to look at other single-volume histories like those by Keegan or Lidell Hart. There aren’t too many maps either so ideally you should get a WW2 atlas to use with the book.
Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a very good book on the … well, rise and fall of the “third reich”. I haven’t read much about the Pacific theater, and can’t recommend any book on that one.
Good choice. You could maybe try Churchill’s History of the Second World War. It’s a six volume tome (there’s an abridged edition, but read the whole thing), and it is very readable. It’s perhaps not the most unbiased of all accounts , but he was there after all and it is interesting to read a well written account by one of the main players Try and find a copy of Allan Brooke’s bio to read a different perspective.
I agree, I’m a WWII buff and this is an excellent place to start. I’m currently reading a book by Desmond Seward, which is a comparative bio of Hitler and Napoleon
I recommend strongly if anyone is interested in WWII is Axis Forums. And it’s not just WWII, they do WWI, “What Ifs” and the best thing is there are people on it from all over the world. You get many different views, you’d never even think about.
An interesting view of pre-war Nazi Germany is presented in 1937’s The House That Hitler Built, by Stephen H. Roberts, Challis professor of history at the University of Sydney. Based on three months in Germany, his own extensive knowledge of European history, and interviews with Nazi leaders, it’s probably the best of a number of pre-war accounts written by foreign observers in Germany. It’s quite prescient for the most part, but at the same time curiously blind.
Why the Allies Won. Dispenses with most of the usual discursive timewasting and gets right to the point about why the Axis basically had no chance, as they were constituted (resource-wise and psychologically).
I recently finished Shattered Sword, and while it is ostensibly about the Battle of Midway, it actually goes quite far afield into the strategic realm, agreeing significantly with the above book.
Some good recommendations already. I also add Total War (also published as The Penguin History of the Second World War) by Peter Calvocoressi and Guy Wint.
I’d also recommend Russia at War: 1941-1945 by Alexander Werth or Russia’s War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941-1945 by Richard Overy. While the Russo-German war was just one part of World War II, it was a really important part and all too often American and British shortchange its history to devote more attention to American or British aspects of the war.
And The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s by Piers Brendon is an excellent one volume history of the ten years that led to World War II - very helpful in understanding the war itself.
I know you asked about books but I just can’t help mentioning the TV documentary series titled “The World At War” as I just finished watching it in its entirety and was completely blown away.
Arguably the greatest visual documentary on WWII ever produced (and will remain so, seeing as many of the key interviewees have passed).
Besides Keegan’s, I liked Martin Gilbert’s one-volume history- although it starts when the war does and has no information about the Nazis’ rise to power. Gilbert wrote a wonderful three-volume history of the 20th century that goes over the rise of the Nazis and WWII in good depth in the appropriate years.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is an interesting book, but it may not be what you’re looking for- not only is it over 1,000 pages long, it mainly focuses on Hitler and the Nazi inner circle and how the Nazis came to power and what they did when they had it and not so much about the German army on the battlefield during the war.
GREAT EFFING BOOK! Keegan apologizes (Six Armies in Normandy) for his childish belief that the Allies would inevitably win, but Overy explains how and why it was inevitable.
OTOH, Keegan’s “Mask of Command” gives clues why Hitler, an enlisted man in WWI who understood war from at his level but not The Big Picture, was doomed to fight WWII from the standpoint of both an enlisted man and a dictator, leaving the pros out of the mix.
I will third this book. Long and daunting when you look at it, but you will find yourself sucked into it and it is a surprisingly fast read.
I will check out some of the other suggestions in this thread. I need to expand my knowledge of the Pacific theater, but for the European theater, Shirer’s book is tough to beat on completeness.