The Real History of World War II: A New Look at the Past

By Alan Axelrod

Book Overview

In a refreshingly fearless, colloquial voice, acclaimed historian Alan Axelrod recounts the key events of World War II with unflagging humanity, drama, and straightforward explanations of their significance, weaving a story as engrossing and multifaceted as a great novel. As with the series first entry, The Real History of World War II remains authoritative, non-academic, and appealingly designed with illustrations, maps, and more. It s a unique approach that makes this enormous saga understandable to every reader, and favors gripping storytelling over a strictly dry and plodding chronological account. Axelrod brings you right into every theater of the war, one by one, capturing all its most compelling events before moving on to the next. If, today, we see World War II as a titanic clash of good and evil, Axelrod effortlessly looks beyond this schism, putting facts above political interpretation in order to uncover the conflict s roots and ramifications. He concisely explores the war s ideological, nationalistic, and economic causes; probes the motivation of those involved, including Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill, FDR, and Truman; and looks at its enduring political, global, social, and technological legacy. You ll be able to understand the tragic legacy of Versailles, the full repercussions of the blitzkrieg, exactly what happened in the Holocaust, and why, in Japan, the war was less associated with one individual than with an ongoing militaristic and imperialist movement. In addition, this enlightening volume provides a concise narrative of the entire course of the struggle, which unfolded simultaneously in many places, thoroughly engulfing the world. The fresh insights and forthright analyses, the sidebars on such subjects as trivia and alternative histories, the eyewitness testimony and quotes, and the revealing, edgy attitude make this a pleasure to read like having an enjoyable conversation with a favorite teacher. History truly comes alive. "

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402740905
• ISBN13: 9781402740909
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Sterling
• Length: 385 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Real History of World War II

A great read with excellent visuals and sidenotes to really pull in the reader. This book is great, it gives an excellent overview of every aspect and major battle in the war. I also enjoyed it because it gives you a nice flavor of World War I and how is attributed to World War II. Can't recommend it enough.

Beautifully Written

Axelrod's book on World War II is more a social and political than a military history. He gives abundant background--from World War I on up. He also analyzes, briefly but deftly, the social, political, and economic trends that provided the seed-bed for the war. His work is encyclopedic, jumping from Europe to the Pacific to Africa to South Asia; but he manages to fit all the pieces together into a coherent whole. Mercifully, he does not get bogged down in details of battle, but concentrates on strategy and overall goals. The book has many virtues, but here are some of the best: It is replete with sidebars that clarify and summarize and give notes on interesting details. His scope is panoramic, and he puts the war, its leadup and aftermath, in a broad context. He is trenchant about the interaction of personalities and social trends. Best of all, Axelrod is a wonderful writer. Pithy, concise, elegant, probing, his prose is alway flexible and revealing. The one criticism I have--and it is a small one--is that the maps have been shrunk to microscopic size. But given his overall descriptive powers, this hardly matters. P.S. Among his several "What Ifs" Axelrod poses this. Rather than speculating if WWII might have been averted if the Versailles Treaty had not been so harsh, he says (far more plausibly) WWII might have been averted if the U.S. had not entered WWI--leaving it a stalemate, from which a less lopsided peace might have emerged. A cogent point.

Great, concise history of WWII

This is a great overview of World War II without an overabundance of detail. A real history buff would probably like to read a more wordy account, but, for readers like me, this is enough. I was a little disappointed that more information wasn't given about the Japanese-American internment camps in the US. This is a subject that I didn't anything about until maybe 10 years ago. l I like Mr. Axelrod's writing style, which is easy to understand and not tediously boring. I highly recommend this book.