The Second World War

by Alan Farmer

The Teach Yourself History series offers an alternative to academic historical books, its content being extensive yet extremely accessible and the approach refreshingly different. The books are informative and compelling, and engage the reader from beginning to end. They assume no prior historical knowledge, and are full of anecdotes and details that provide a very personal appeal. Teach Yourself The Second World War is an accessible introduction to one of the most important, tragic and costly events in history. Some 55 million people died in the conflict, which devastated much of Europe and Asia and had huge consequences for the second half of the 20th century. This book will help you to understand how one of the most important events in history developed, charting the main military campaigns, and examining the path to Allied victory and its impact on the countries involved. Learn about the main characters involved in the Second World War, the actions and decisions that were taken, the resulting consequences and the reasons behind the final outcome.

Genres: History, Reference, World War II, Nonfiction, War, Politics

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2010

Reviews

[Opu Hossain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been immensely interested about what was going on in the 2nd world war, how it shaped the European life and how the dictators came in to being with full of courage to fight and invade each other territories. The central character in the second world was obviously Adlof Hitler
fascinated many of us about how and what made him so confident and brave enough to wage wars against vastly powerful Allied forces namely USA, Britain, France, Russia. What was more surprising is that Germany was able to fight eastern and western fronts simultaneously with super powers like Russia and Britain including Pacific regions. How Germany under Adlof Hitlar managed to show superiority over so many European powers during most part of the war but ultimately lost still thrill millions of minds. The writer Alan Farmer in his "Understand the Second World War" takes us in a journey to explore all of these incidents made the book a great one to read. Point to be noted that this is the first time in human history when atomic bombs were dropped in Japan made the world horrified. The world saw countries were divided, millions of casualties, economic collapse, destructions of modern weaponry systems and so on.

The second world war finally brings a question in front of us if in 1945 the world witnessed such big destructive event of the humanity then should the world allow to come into being a 3rd world war ever? Yet we can see the powerful countries are once again in a race to develop mass destructive weapons the world has ever seen.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives the reader a surprisingly good overview of the Second World War.

[Brian Connell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good quick high level overview of the second world war. For me, it pulled togethor many of the threads learned from various sources over time. Found the maps a bit frustrating at times as they didn't always seem to identify the places highlighted in the text, and sometimes were a bit busy.

[Art Vandelay · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a first book on the subject, it is a great choice. With a clean narrative and a good concern about almost every affecting matter, from needed raw material for making tanks and amo to diplomatic difficulties and conflicts between allied and axis powers. It is a good read.

[Stephen Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a really good overview of the narrative of the war, bringing together the various threads I knew about but had not joined together. The analytical insights are helpful too and come across as well balanced.

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic overview of the causes, major players, key events and consequences of the second world war. Written clearly and concisely for those of us without masters without pandering or editing any important points. The books length limits its depth in certain areas but there are 1,000,000 more focused texts to read after this incredibly enlightening introduction. I'd recommended it to anyone interested in the history of the worlds most important years and looking for a place to start.

[Bob Hanks · Rating 1 out of 5]

It seemed as if this guy who wrote this book , is a Hitlerite