No one has been more acclaimed or prolific in writing about the total scope of twentieth century history than British author and historian Sir Martin Gilbert, who sometimes seems to represent a kind of one-man revival in British historical publication. Here he focuses impressively on the total scope of World War Two, from the opening shots fired in Poland to the surrender of the Japanese in Tokyo Bay. He brings impressive credentials to the task; as the foremost biographer and authority on Winston Churchill (with an 8 volume biography already published), he is obviously well versed on the particulars of the European theater of the conflict, and in this volume he displays how comprehensive his knowledge of the other theaters of wars, especially the Pacific campaign, is as well.Readers looking for specific orders of battle or "blow by blow" detailed accounts of particular engagements are likely to be disappointed, but even die-hard military huffs like me sometimes tire of such endlessly specifics, and it is refreshing to have an approach like Gilbert's which concentrates more on the context and connections of such engagements to use to get a better and perhaps more complete appreciation for what was happening in the same time or in the local area that materially affected the progress and eventual outcome of a particular battle. After all, this war was indeed global, and it is indeed useful to recognize that events transpiring in Stalingrad were materially affected by the dispositions of troops and airplanes dedicated to other Nazi commitments in the Mediterranean theater or to defend the skies of Berlin against British and American air raids. Gilbert's sweeping prose style and selection of topics makes for entertaining and informative reading; he masterfully weaves together a meaningful context in which the political, military, and diplomatic aspects of the conflict are connected in a perspective that always pays compassionate heed to the civilian impact of the bloody struggle. As one of the foremost authorities on the Holocaust, Gilbert blends the particulars of the "Final Solution" into the history as part of the ongoing narrative, placing it in context and offering the opinion that it seemed more the result of exigent circumstance and expediency that it evolved the way it did rather than as a calculated and well-organized campaign of deliberate mass extermination. This isn't to say the Nazis didn't mean to solve their so-called "Jewish Question" violently; it just means that the particular way this was accomplished owed much more to happenstance than to contrived evil brilliance. Of particular interest is the way Gilbert uses personal recollections and anecdotal details to humanize the epic struggle and to bring home the horrific and monstrous scale on which this war brought terror, death and destruction to much of the civilized world. He reminds us with compelling evidence and stirring narratives that people died horribly and needlessly every day during the disastrous, painful, and nearly six-year long struggle. If you want to better understand what happened during WWII and why it did, this wonderful and admirably comprehensive overview will serve you quite well. Enjoy The Second World War: A Complete History
I started this book with high hopes. Martin Gilbert is a famous historian and has done much to educate the world about the holocaust. I also feel the idea of a strictly chronological blow-by-blow history of World War II is a promising premise. However, the book provides little more than a collection of facts arranged chronologically. There is absolutely no historical or political context--the invasion of Poland starts on page 1 and he never backtracks to fill it in. There is very little analysis, usually just a listing of what battles occurred each month and how many tanks, planes, and/or casualties on each side. Instead of forming an arresting narrative, it just becomes a mind-numbing list of events that are never tied together. The format could lend itself to a discussion of global strategy, being organized by time rather than region. However, this is never pursued.The only reason I would look at this book again is if I needed to reference it for facts or dates. A great deal of scholarship was clearly involved in assembling these and, as such, it might be a useful reference, but from such a book I would expect much more.Instead of reading this book, for a truly excellent history of WWII, read Weinberg's "A World at Arms".
Martin Gilbert has really achieved something great in this book. He has captured the true horror of WW II, not only from the soldiers stand-point, but also from the view of the millions of civilians who lost their lives. He shows the world the true nature of Hitler's regime. His descriptions of major battles take up about a paragraph each. This is not good for the military historians, but it does show how battle fit into the larger story of genocide and a war against pure evil. All in all, a great read.
The great Churchill scholar Martin Gilbert's 'complete' history of the Second World War can perhaps be faulted on only one count: plodding.
This weakness in rhetorical strategy is also the virtue that sets this history of the Second War apart from others. A glimpse at the dated chapters in the table of contents is barely enough to prepare the reader for the cumulative impact of marching month by month through this great conflagration. One skips from one military theater to the next, always aligned with the same dates.
Thus, Gilbert allows the crushing burden of *world* war to settle upon the careful reader with devastating effect. One wonders how the world survived.
Survive it did, thanks in part - with apologies to doctrinaire oponents of 'great men' history-making - to decision-makers and opinion-shapers like Gilbert's beloved Churchill. Still, the bulk of this work's attention falls upon the generals. How could it be otherwise in a theater-movement-and-strategy approach? One follows the bloodied paths of armies who follow, to some degree at least, the edicts of generals who see dimly through their glasses and on their HQ maps. This, too, is a reality of war.
I highly recommend this book. It is not the view of the man in the foxhole or the nurse in the dressing station. It is, however, a bird's-eye view of how the world tore itself to pieces and then stopped just before there was nothing left. - History - American History - War - British History'
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