The period from 1939 to 1945 saw some of the most devastating and remarkable events in living memory. Laboring beneath a daily burden of fear, sacrifice, deprivation and uncertainty, soldiers and civilians of all nationalities were driven to extremes of selfless loyalty, dogged determination or bitter cruelty by the demands of a world at war.
This book tells the stories of the men and women who lived and died during the Second World War, from politicians to factory workers, and from High Command to the conscripted men on the front lines. The experience of war is brought to life through a wealth of contemporary documentation, private writings and historical research, whilst the political, military, and historical significance of the war is assessed and examined. From Europe's Western and Eastern Fronts to the war at sea, and from the Pacific to the Mediterranean and North Africa, every fighting front of the Second World War is covered in this truly comprehensive volume.
This collection of several separate "essential histories" about world war ii into one book is an incredible value and several of the individual books are very good. As a collection posing as a unified history, there are some continuity issues between the various sections that hinder its status as a more general history of world war ii, but for most I'd say that there's a lot in there that may seem new as it fills out portions of the world war's history that often get short shrift in standard accounts.