thomas_volkov's review
3.0
A odd rating for a book I've learned so much from and from which I will base further research into areas of World War II which greatly interested me.
Highlights of this book included the few chapters which strayed away from military tactics. This is a poor opinion to have of a book with the title of 'W A R'. Despite trying my best to keep up, these long and highly detailed descriptions of advances, defences, and counter-attacks began to make my eyes bleed to no fault of the author. This type of information is just not what I am interested in.
The sole exception of this personal flaw would be the descriptions of the battles of the eastern front. I feel like Beevor provided a lot of personal accounts by both Red Army and Wehrmacht soldiers, which made it a lot more enjoyable to read.
My opinions on the war and its participants haven't changed since reading this book. However, during the beginning, I will admit that I was mislead by an unwavering admiration for Churchill, which slowly fell apart as the war progressed. Despite this, in the early years of the war, Great Britain stood as the most noble Allied member.
I appreciated the numerous references to war crimes that were shamefully committed by the Axis, but also by the Allies (which doesn't include just the Soviet Union). What actually surprised me, however, were the thousands of rapes which were committed by the Americans during the occupation of Japan. This I had never heard about, despite hearing extensively of the Soviet's crimes.
The enforcement of the concept of 'war crimes' by the United Nations suddenly made a lot more sense, once I realized that these crimes weren't just done by the enemy.
Beevor managed to introduce me to Vasily Grossman, whose work I will undoubtedly pick up one day. Outside of that, my interest has focused on the eastern front, but I will definitely want to take a break from reading about various battles. But unchanged was my interest in the rise of the Third Reich, which was, understandably, absent from this absolute tome.
The fatal flaw of this book would be its goal. It is simply impossible to document the Second World War in a single book. But, god damn, did Beevor do his absolute best. While it has provided an excellent summary of the war for my own personal knowledge, I find it hard to recommend to newcomers of researching the War due to the sheer commitment of reading this.
Absolutely everything was covered, which sometimes threw me off guard as incidents such as Nanking and Babi Yar was summarized in under a page. But that is just due to the nature of this book. What was missing, which I found odd, was the internment camps in the United States and Canada against Japanese, and on a much lesser extent, Germans who were all American citizens. It did accidentally provide me the 'reasons' for these camps, without mentioning the camps themselves.
I'm very proud of myself for having read through his entire tome in just over a month. It was a very rewarding experience, even if sometimes a slog due to the main content of the book.
Do I recommend?
It is like a hard math class. Insightful, but not a constantly fun experience.
Highlights of this book included the few chapters which strayed away from military tactics. This is a poor opinion to have of a book with the title of 'W A R'. Despite trying my best to keep up, these long and highly detailed descriptions of advances, defences, and counter-attacks began to make my eyes bleed to no fault of the author. This type of information is just not what I am interested in.
The sole exception of this personal flaw would be the descriptions of the battles of the eastern front. I feel like Beevor provided a lot of personal accounts by both Red Army and Wehrmacht soldiers, which made it a lot more enjoyable to read.
My opinions on the war and its participants haven't changed since reading this book. However, during the beginning, I will admit that I was mislead by an unwavering admiration for Churchill, which slowly fell apart as the war progressed. Despite this, in the early years of the war, Great Britain stood as the most noble Allied member.
I appreciated the numerous references to war crimes that were shamefully committed by the Axis, but also by the Allies (which doesn't include just the Soviet Union). What actually surprised me, however, were the thousands of rapes which were committed by the Americans during the occupation of Japan. This I had never heard about, despite hearing extensively of the Soviet's crimes.
The enforcement of the concept of 'war crimes' by the United Nations suddenly made a lot more sense, once I realized that these crimes weren't just done by the enemy.
Beevor managed to introduce me to Vasily Grossman, whose work I will undoubtedly pick up one day. Outside of that, my interest has focused on the eastern front, but I will definitely want to take a break from reading about various battles. But unchanged was my interest in the rise of the Third Reich, which was, understandably, absent from this absolute tome.
The fatal flaw of this book would be its goal. It is simply impossible to document the Second World War in a single book. But, god damn, did Beevor do his absolute best. While it has provided an excellent summary of the war for my own personal knowledge, I find it hard to recommend to newcomers of researching the War due to the sheer commitment of reading this.
Absolutely everything was covered, which sometimes threw me off guard as incidents such as Nanking and Babi Yar was summarized in under a page. But that is just due to the nature of this book. What was missing, which I found odd, was the internment camps in the United States and Canada against Japanese, and on a much lesser extent, Germans who were all American citizens. It did accidentally provide me the 'reasons' for these camps, without mentioning the camps themselves.
I'm very proud of myself for having read through his entire tome in just over a month. It was a very rewarding experience, even if sometimes a slog due to the main content of the book.
Do I recommend?
It is like a hard math class. Insightful, but not a constantly fun experience.
abelikoff's review
5.0
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.
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.
spencyrrh's review
4.0
Though a great effort, this mammoth may have put me off sweeping, single-volume histories permanently. Its relatively equitable coverage left me bored by military tactics and satisfied about China but wanting more about Mussolini, Poland, Japan, Burma, political intrigue, social history and economic detail. Dozens of brutal diary excerpts personalise narratives, but the scale of the conflict defies any book.
tuomosuominen's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent overview, thank you so much! However, the attacks on Finland and the Baltic States were largely dismissed.
sleepyboi2988's review
5.0
Excellently written, most of the things presented are known if you are familiar with WWII but it is written in such a way that its still enjoyable. Very well researched, and I still learned things.
isheekagoswami's review
4.0
I haven't really finished this book, but I am done with it. I just don't really have the time or inclination to keep reading - there are other things I'd like to read over the next little while, and this is a library book that needs to be returned! I did really enjoy what I read of this, though. Beevor is a skilled writer and manages to inject a lot of humanity into this book, making it considerably more readable than I expected it to be. There was a bit too much detail about the various military units and whatnot but that's just me and my lack of interest in that sort of thing.
nelsta's review
4.0
While very comprehensive and wonderful, I felt that the author did not give certain important moments enough weight (the atomic bombings received little more than passing mention). This is a good book if you want to understand topics that typically get little coverage and if you already know a lot of what gets a lot of coverage.