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.Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45

by: Max Hastings

April 15, 2005
An impressive panoramic narrative of the battle for Germany, "Armageddon" combines a wide range of sources (including many veterans) with Hastings's sharp, often iconoclastic judgement. His criticism of the military folly of Operation Market Garden, the Ardennes offensive, and Zhukov's Oder crossing is hard-hitting, but frequently deserved. Hastings is no apologist for military failings, although he frequently gets moralistic: discussions of the justice of the allied cause or the tyranny of Stalin, which is perceived in downright Manichean terms, should not be part of a work of history. This is not to deny the reality of good and evil, or to say that tales of atrocity should not be included: of course they should, especially in a book that intends ... Read More:
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.Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War

by: Chris Bellamy

April 04, 2008
Good: A thorough presentation of the events leading to war, and the ideologies and personalities involved. A good overview to non-initiated. Although there are other books written with similar reach, most of them have been written before the opening of Soviet archives and are thus deprived of some important sources.

Bad: A somewhat chatty writing style, not very useful maps. A couple of gross factual errors regarding the Finnish participation in the conflict left me doubting the accuracy of the entire book. Bellamy takes the estimate of Finnish casualties in the Winter War from Soviet sources, and based on that hardly neutral source he claims that almost twice as many Finns were killed in that war as very thorough Finnish official statistics ... Read More:
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.The Decline and Fall of the British Empire

by: Piers Brendon

October 02, 2008
Im still reading this, It gives a considered and riveting tale of my Countrys History. Keep an open mind, fantastic achievements by towering figures, they were Empire builders and Empire spoilers, working to the values and ethics of their times. Reads like an action packed novel. Well done ancestors and well done this author.
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.Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941

by: Ian Kershaw

February 28, 2008
EVENTS, DEAR BOY, EVENTS

By IAIN FRASER GRIGOR

THE PRINCIPLES of warfare are really very simple. As codified by the military sages of antiquity and modernity, they can be reduced to two simple rules. The first is to win without having to fight at all. And the second is: if you have to fight, attack a small, defenceless and entirely unconscious enemy with devastating superiority of force and absolute surprise.

The great Prussian von Moltke knew this. But he was to add one great aphorism to the principles of war, to the effect that no plan survives contact with the enemy. So it was in the wars of his nineteenth century, after all, and so it would prove to be in the first Great War of Europe's bloody twentieth century. But how ... Read More:
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.Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy, 1944 (Pan Grand Strategy Series)

by: Max Hastings

August 13, 1999
Hasting's 'Overlord' has earned a reputation of being almost as close as one can get to becoming a definitive history of the 1944 landings in Normandy.

Whilst far superior to the work of 'historians' such as Stephen Ambrose, there is still an overwhelming feeling of this book being authored by a journalist and not an historian. Hastings makes many sweeping statements, many of which are totally unfounded, yet does very little to substantiate his claims. He constantly enforces the popular misconception, which have almost become fashionable, to criticise rather than to focus on the positives. Reading 'Overlord' found me actually questioning myself as to whether or not the Allies actually won the Battle of Normandy or not.

There is far too much unbalanced ... Read More:
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.The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

by: Orlando Figes

October 04, 2007
In this book, Figes has diluted and refined his mastery of the art of weaving historical sources together. These family narratives which, without this book, would certainly have been lost, provide a compelling insight into the reality of Soviet Russia - the 'historical' backdrop of dates and movements takes a back seat to the gritty honesty of real people's testimony of what living through this era was actually like.
A fantastic read.
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.Italy's Sorrow: A Year of War 1944-45

by: James Holland

March 03, 2008
James Holland's generosity of spirit and indefatiguable labour has created one of the best general histories I've read recently--and there's a lot of stiff competition about. As well as using writen sources, Holland personally interviewed survivors from all sides of the conflict; Germans, Poles, Canadians, Britons, Americans, Italian partisans and fascists. These accounts give a vivid picture of the heroism and brutality of war, and instil a sense of sympathy for (almost) all of the participants. Their stories are skillfully blended into the larger narrative, which explains what happened, and why the major players (Alexander, Mark Clark, Kesselring, Churchill, Roosevelt, Mussolini, etc) made crucial decisions. Holland is immenently fair-minded; the controversy surrounding Clark's dash for Rome (in ... Read More:
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.The Korean War (Pan Grand Strategy)

by: Max Hastings

January 07, 2000
The Korean War is to some extent an overlooked war considering its importance and scale. This might be because it was the last big war before widespread television or because the result was inconclusive or because coming so soon after the Second World War it was simply eclipsed. Max Hastings sets out to redress the balance in this work about the confrontation between the USA and its Western Allies versus China and North Korea.

The book can essentially be divided into three parts. First of all is an account of the events that ultimately led up to war starting with the Japanese invasion back in the late 19th century. The second part is a chronological narrative of the military conflict itself, this takes up the bulk of the book obviously. Finally Hastings analysis specific aspects of the war, ... Read More:
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.Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe (Allen Lane History)

by: Mark Mazower

June 05, 2008
This is an excellent book, with a qualifying 'but'. If you want to understand the dynamic of 'Hitlers Empire', how it developed and collapsed, and the details of its particular favour of genocidal gangsterism, then this will satisfy all the curiosity you have, and then some. My only complain about the main content is that it is a bit short on personalities (though this may be an unavoidable problem - the focus of the book is, after all, on process and governance). You get little real feel for the _people_ who did all this. Mazower does not mention anyone having nightmares, or developing a drink problem (lots of people are mentioned as having drinking problems, but only for the usual, soap-opera sort of reasons, not because of a day job in the mass murder business), but there must have been some. Neither does ... Read More:
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.Fusiliers: How the British Army Lost America but Learned to Fight

by: Mark Urban

May 15, 2008
The author has a depth of knowledge of events which are enlightening and entertaining. Much effort appears to have gone into unearthing contemporary accounts giving a refreshing and unbiased view of events with a ring of truth about them unlike the standard texts which can be misleading generalisations. Well worth the money, not only for a gripping read as well as an historical record .
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