World War II books

Cafe Society
1

There was a thread during the last couple weeks asking for recommendations, but I’ve searched and can’t find it. Well, I searched 8 pages, and searched using “world war II” and “WWII” and nada.

Anyways, the new issue of Bookmarks magazine asks three experts and historians for their recommendations – fiction and non-fiction.

I was going to type out their selections, but I figured doing that comes close to violating copyright.

So I’ll just say that the experts have chosen some of the usual (Band of Brothers, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich) but also some old and new titles that are less well known but sound intriguing.

WWII readers, it’d be worth buying the issue of Bookmarks, just for this. It’s an excellent magazine for readers.

2

Maybe this thread?

3

Yeah! How’d you find it so fast?

The Bookmarks article listed a couple of the books mentioned in the thread. I’m gonna e-mail a mod and see if it’d be okay to post the Bookmarks choices, with some of the comments.

4

It depends on what you want to focus on, as well.

Do you want to focus on one battle? Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway is a current hot item (about the Battle of Midway). (edit: :smack: Master of the Obvious, arent I?)

A campaign? Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan

Or personalities? *The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance *

Plenty to choose from. :slight_smile:

5

The search engine doesn’t acknowledge words of three letters or less, thus it ignores “war” and “two” or “II”.

6

A few recommendations:

• The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945, by John Toland
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer
• The Longest Day, by Cornelius Ryan
• The Last Battle, by Cornelius Ryan
• Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference, by Herbert Feis
• Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, by James MacGregor Burns
• An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943, by Rick Atkinson
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
• “The Good War”: An Oral History of World War Two by Studs Terkel
• Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 by Barbara W. Tuchman

7

Second “An Army at Dawn” and also the second book, “Day of Battle” by Rick Atkinson.
“The Jungle War” by Gerald Astor.

8

You might not be the same person after reading Jonathan Littell’s Les Bienveillantes. I don’t know if it has been translated to English yet, but as soon as it is, jump on it. (Warning: close to 1,000 pages.)