Looking for a good WWII book

[Sane]

I'm looking for a good WWII book that pretty much covers the war from beginning to end. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Peter Jenkins]

There's no such thing as "a good WWII book that pretty much covers the war from beginning to end".
Give us an indictation of what sort of viewpoint you want (European, American, German or Japanese Perspective)
and what theatres of war you want to learn about.
Are you also interested in the historical roots of WW2?
A good view of the (mainly) European aspects of WW2 are Churchills diaries - but even they run to about 5 (or 6?) volumes
P

[Sane]

Originally posted by Peter Jenkins
There's no such thing as "a good WWII book that pretty much covers the war from beginning to end".
Give us an indictation of what sort of viewpoint you want...

Actually, a description of A Short History of World War II claims that the book covers the war very well (and comprehensively) in one volume.

Here's a description from Amazon.com
Despite the numerous books on World War II, until now there has been no one-volume survey that was both objective and comprehensive. Previous volumes have usually been written from an exclusively British or American point of view, or have ignored the important causes and consequences of the War.

I'm looking for some suggestions and an alternative to A Short History of World War II. Perhaps they exist but are not well written?

[Jude]

I like Enemy at the Gates (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1568523688/qid=1082041795/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/102-6996052-9499362?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). It doesn't cover the whole war though.

[IllegalArgument]

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Doesn't focus on the military battles, says some really nasty things about homosexuals, which I chauk up to being written in the 50s.

To make up for that. It is a excellent history book, really gives you a overview of how Hilter gained power and why.

[CFLarsen]

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer. Thick whopper, covers a lot of ground.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Originally posted by Sane
I'm looking for a good WWII book that pretty much covers the war from beginning to end. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

I doesn't cover the whole thing, and it's fiction, but you can't beat From here to Eternity by James Jones.

[Dancing David]

I would recomend Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer, The Arms of Krupp by William manchester(for the setting), then there is Eagle Against the Sun ,author I forgot and I really like Stillwell by Barbara Tuchman.

There are sources like the American Heritage World War Two , fiction like Catch-22 orThe Naked and the Dead .

[Soapy Sam]

Or "Mein Kampf" , if you want to see what inspired it .

[Virgil]

Originally posted by Dancing David
The Arms of Krupp by William manchester(for the setting),



I liked this one.

Virgil

[bignickel]

Originally posted by IllegalArgument
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Doesn't focus on the military battles, says some really nasty things about homosexuals, which I chauk up to being written in the 50s.


It is a great book (by William Shirer by the way); but I don't remember it saying nasty things about gays at all.

One of the points that it made was that Adolph had no problems with gays in the SA when he needed the SA, but when it became a liability, he had most of the SA rounded up and shot (or sent off to camps) while at the same time saying how 'shocked' he was at all the indecency going in it. ie Adolph was being a lying hyprocrite. One of many many character faults (I can't find an appropriate emoticon to put at this spot. ah well)

Also: be sure to grab Shirer's "Collapse of the Third Republic" - the book to learn how France fell so quickly in 1940.

[IllegalArgument]

Originally posted by bignickel


It is a great book (by William Shirer by the way); but I don't remember it saying nasty things about gays at all.

One of the points that it made was that Adolph had no problems with gays in the SA when he needed the SA, but when it became a liability, he had most of the SA rounded up and shot (or sent off to camps) while at the same time saying how 'shocked' he was at all the indecency going in it. ie Adolph was being a lying hyprocrite. One of many many character faults (I can't find an appropriate emoticon to put at this spot. ah well)

Also: be sure to grab Shirer's "Collapse of the Third Republic" - the book to learn how France fell so quickly in 1940.

I must admit I listened to it, didn't read it, for a year I had a long commute. I definately remember him repeated calling gays, preverts everytime he mentioned them. I have a fuzzy memory of him using other words.

You are right the Nazis had gays in their ranks until the party became more popular. Excellent book, I just like to warn people about the negative gay language as a curtousy.

[Virgil]

I liked theis book. It was true story about the US invasion of the USSR.



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553284568/qid=1082134843/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl14/102-8870838-0842501?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


Virgil

[Sane]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I look forward to tackling all these titles at some point.

[chrisqqgx4]

Churchill won the Nobel prize for literature for his 12 volume work on the war. Can't ask for more than that.

[gnome]

If the hardware interests you, a friend of mine who is a WWII buff is nuts about this one:

Panzer Aces (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345448847/qid=1082155770/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-9190373-8204153?v=glance&s=books)

[ASRomatifoso]

Iron Coffins (U-Boats)
Thank God for the Atom Bomb by Paul Fussell (I really love his books and this is one of his best, though it's more of a personal memoir and defense of the decision to A-bomb than it is a history book)

[kittynh]

Good fiction, based totally on the life story of the author

"Song of the Young Sentry" by Westheimer. Really great work of fiction.

[LucyR]

Originally posted by Virgil
I liked theis book. It was true story about the US invasion of the USSR.



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553284568/qid=1082134843/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl14/102-8870838-0842501?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


Virgil

And what, pray, does that have to do with WWII?

[Byzantine Magpie]

The Great Crusade by H P Wilmott.

It's a densely written academic book, but it covers WW2 from the Japanese invasion of China to the Japanese surrender, with sections covering politics and the economies of war. It has only a few stock photos, a few reasonable maps, and a few hundred pages of multi-line sentences with multiply embedded subordinate clauses. Yet I found it compelling reading.

[Suddenly]

This is a pretty comprehensive one volume account at the war:

The Second World War: A Complete History by Martin Gilbert.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805017887/002-7815427-8750410?v=glance

[TwoShanks]

I recommend "The Third Reich: A New History" by Michael Burleigh. It's fairly academic in style, but it's extremely detailed and looks at the near religious/fanatical aspects of Hitler's ideas and rise to power. It's geared toward analysing germany, rather than the battles of the war, brilliant book.

[shemp]

I read a few books about WWII, but I got bored with it. It always ends the same way, and the same guys always did it.

[Kodiak]

Adolph Hitler by John Toland (the definitive Hitler biography)

The First and the Last and Horrido! by Adolf Galland (general of the fighter arm of the Luftwaffe with over 300 confirmed air victories)

Achtung Panzer! by Heinz Guderian (Panzer general and creator of the blitzkrieg style of attack)

[Giz]

Richard Overy "Why the Allies Won".

Very interesting, especially the economic side. Almost too much in it to be able to summarise, but always readable.