The Second World War

Excellent one-volume military history of World War II. The author is a well-known military historian who taught at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He acknowledges learning from colleagues who were veterans of the war, and from his students; I sense the voice of someone who had a lot of experience teaching this material.

A strong point of this book is its organization, first by time, then by place, then by topic. This makes such a vast topic much more accessible. The writing is clear and readable, and at its best moments (such as the account of the battle of Kursk on the Eastern front) it sparkles and thunders. There are several good maps, and evocative photographs. Within each section, there is a high-level discussion of the strategic show more issues, looking by turn at the perspective of each of the commanders – Hitler, Tojo, Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt; and a focused look at a selected battle that illuminates the evolution of war-making and its machinery.

I struggled with the book’s perspective, not so much that it’s British (Keegan actually tries very hard to look from all sides of the conflict, and has some of his toughest critique for Britain’s strategic aerial bombing of German cities), but that it’s so much a military discussion, focused on strategy, military decision making, the evolution of war-making and its machinery, and battles that proved to be turning points. How can you write a book on World War II and say so little about the Holocaust? Keegan was not unaware of political and humanitarian issues; he discusses them tellingly, but not at great length or much detail here. So, highly recommended and I hope it isn’t the only book you read about this period. show less

A good introductory Book on the Global Catastrophe. Everything is included, the proportion of coverage is good for an English Language Book, and there is acknowledgement that the Soviet Army killed the bulk of the German one. The maps are not the best feature but the ones on the air war are good as I've seen.

Keegan's book is a very clear explanation of the conduct of the Second World War however because it a road very well traveled there were stretches where I was reading through information I had already encountered. However when Keegan switches to such topics as an evaluation of the effectiveness of the various resistance movements in the occupied countries as opposed to the role played by signals intelligence especially the code breakers in Bletchly, he makes some very interesting points. Keegan assesses and evaluates traditional viewpoints well and it was a book I was glad to read

There is no easy way to write about WWII, obviously you can't cover everything. Someone else used best introduction and overview, I think that works well. I would believe with the least amount of effort I came away with the most and greatest understanding of the war in this book. Although he is much to politically correct and kind to the horrid mistakes made in the war, this left me wondering what else was avoided. I will read on.

Great overview of WWII. The analysis was enlightening and conservative.

This book was awesome! Really well written and very informative. I never in my life thought I would want to read a book about WWII, in the past the subject bored me to death..this book completely changed the way I look at military history altogether. I'm actually excited to read more about the events surrounding WWII.

Publisher's blurb aside, this IS actually the best one-volume introduction to World War II. An excellent overview of the grand strategy, with the details of different kinds of fighting handled in separate chapters on air warfare (Battle of Britain), parachute operations (Battle of Crete), etc. Also includes an excellent list of suggestions for further reading.