Atlas of World War II: History's Greatest Conflict Revealed Through Rare Wartime Maps and New Cartography

by Stephen G. Hyslop

This definitive, lavishly illustrated book from National Geographic features an astonishing array of vintage and newly created maps, rare photographs, covert documents, and eyewitness accounts that illuminate the world’s greatest conflict.

This magnificent atlas delves into the cartographic history of naval, land, and aerial attacks from the invasion of Poland to Pearl Harbor and the Battle of the Bulge. Rare maps include a detailed Germany & Approaches map used by Allied forces in the final stages of the war, full large-scale wartime maps of the world used by President Roosevelt, and crucial Pacific theater maps used by B-17 pilots.

Satellite data renders terrain as never before seen, highlighting countries and continents in stunning detail to include the towns, cities, provinces and transportation roads for a pinpoint-accurate depiction of army movements and alliances. Gripping wartime stories from these hallowed fields of battle, along with photographs, sketches, confidential documents, and artifacts color the rest of this timeless and informative book.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War

256 pages, Hardcover

Published October 30, 2018

About the author

Stephen G. Hyslop worked for many years as a writer and editor at Time-Life Books, where he contributed to a series of books on American Indians.

Reviews

[Dachokie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Little “West-Centric”, But a Great WWII Map Resource …

This book was reviewed as part of Amazon's Vine program which included a free copy of the book.

I have amassed a library of almost 500 World-War II-related books and own several books that map the conflict. The NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF WORLD WAR II is an excellent resource that not only chronicles the conflict but illustrates the importance of cartography throughout the war. Far from simply being a “book of maps”, this atlas is educational, detailed and full of unique historical maps that I’ve not previously seen. My only issue is the book’s content is overwhelmingly devoted to the western European theater.

The presentation of this atlas is quite satisfying. The over-sized volume is rich with content and while it could have benefited from being even larger (some of the historical map details are difficult to see), it is nonetheless a superb resource with plenty of “eye candy”. The atlas follows a chronological format and breaks the war down into phases (prelude to the war to the fall of Japan) and divides each phase by theater (Europe and Pacific). National Geographic has been a standard-bearer of presenting maps for almost a century and certainly draws from its vast resources to pool together some extremely interesting and unique maps. I found the map diversity to be a big draw to this atlas. Rather than sticking to the same map format throughout, we get a healthy dose of map variety that keeps your attention (from relatively primitive to modern physical maps). The biggest draw for me was the abundance of historical maps that were used during the war (Allied and Axis). Some of these maps are meticulously detailed and quite amazing when you realize how primitive mapping was compared to today. Every page of this atlas is peppered with factoids, insets, photos and descriptions … a lot to consume with no wasted/empty space.

The only down-side I see with this atlas is that it is dedicated mostly to the western European theater of the war. I wished equal attention had been given to the Eastern Front, which consumed most Germany’s best soldiers and equipment, as well as many of the history’s largest military campaigns/battles. I would have also liked to have seen Japan’s push into Manchuria and China chronicled. While it disappoints me to the see the overly simplified American “big three” summary of World War II (Pearl Harbor, D-Day and Atomic Bomb) being reinforced, I cannot knock the atlas on the material it does present … I only wish it covered more avenues in the same detailed manner.

I do think the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF WORLD WAR II is one of the best map books I’ve seen. It’s not simply a mapped outline of the war, but an education on how maps were created, interpreted and used. Despite short-changing the Eastern Front, I would still consider this book a must-add to your World War II library.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

World War II continues to loom large in popular media today three-quarters of a century after the conflict ended. Films, books, television, and an abundance of material online help bring the most destructive war in human history into sharp relief. But much of what we see and read fails to give us a true picture of this sprawling conflict. Some accounts focus on the individual experiences of one or a handful of people, leaving the Big Picture unseen. Others attempt to encompass the war as a whole, obscuring the human reality in abstract text. But National Geographic adds a new dimension to our understanding of the war: Neil Kagan and Stephen Hyslop’s Atlas of World War II.

THE EVENT THAT SHAPED THE WORLD WE KNOW TODAY
This remarkable atlas combines contemporaneous and new maps with sometimes startling photographs and lucid prose to convey an accurate picture of the grand sweep of the war. Photos dramatize the human drama. Maps portray a general’s-eye view of the action. And terse narrative carries the story forward. Combined, they offer an indispensable tool for anyone who seeks to understand the single event of the twentieth century that has done the most to shape the world we know today.

A BOOK ORGANIZED FROM AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
The coauthors present their story in five well-chosen sections:

Prelude to War—1941 (Blitzkrieg)
Prelude to War—1943 (War in the Pacific)
1942-1944 (Breaking Hitler’s Grip)
1944-1945 (Victory Over Germany)
1943-1945 (Defeating Japan)

Doubtless, German, Russian, Japanese, or even British historians might well organize similar books in a very different way. After all, World War II began in China in 1937, and a major share of the most intense fighting took place on the Eastern Front before US troops entered the European theater late in 1942. Kagan and Hyslop’s approach is unashamedly American. Our Russian, British, French, and Polish allies receive their due, but it’s American forces that dominate in these pages.

A BEAUTIFULLY CONSTRUCTED, LARGE-FORMAT BOOK
The Atlas of World War II is available only in a hardcover edition. Although I only rarely read any book other than on my Kindle, I made an exception for this one. It was well worthwhile. This is a large-format title, measuring 10.5 by 13-7/8 inches. It’s printed on durable glossy stock that brings out the detail of the maps and photos. The coauthors had long careers designing and producing illustrated books for Time-Life and won numerous awards for their work. It shows here.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

NEIL KAGAN
The book’s flyleaf reveals that Neil Kagan is an editor and “heads Kagan & Associates, Inc., a firm specializing in designing and producing innovative illustrated books. Formerly publisher/managing editor and director of new product development for Time-Life Books, he created numerous book series, including the award-winning Voices of the Civil War, Our American Century, and What Life Was Like. Recently, he edited Great Photographs of World War II, Smithsonian Civil War, and for National Geographic, the best-selling Concise History of the World, Eyewitness to the Civil War, Atlas of the Civil War, The Untold Civil War, Eyewitness to World War II, and The Secret History of World War II.”

STEPHEN G. HYSLOP
The bio blurb on Amazon for Stephen G. Hyslop reads in part that he “writes about American history, the American West, and American and international conflicts, including the Mexican War, the Civil War, and World War II. His books are vivid documentary narratives, drawing on numerous accounts from those who made history and witnessed it to portray events as they unfolded. Formerly a staff writer and text editor at Time-Life Books, he has collaborated as author with picture editors and designers to produce several illustrated books, including eyewitness histories and historical atlases published by National Geographic. Hyslop’s articles have appeared in American History, Kansas History, California History, World War II, and the History Channel Magazine.”

[Patrick S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always enjoyed reading and learning about World War II, and now as a middle-aged man, I'm by law to choose World War II or the Civil War to be interested in so I'll keep my streak alive. For the past couple of years I've been tutoring kids in geography and history in classical education. This year I found areas of connection between the two to teach other strands of classical learning. The thing with teaching classical education is that oftentimes you find yourself interested in the 15 skills of learning, so I found the connection between geography and war to be closely linked of course. Having read a number of boots on the ground, first-person accounts, or battles, or generals and other people of note; I have really been getting into what would the generals and leaders see from the birds eye view with a map and a compass. What this NatGeo book does is give a number of detailed maps of campaigns and battles while also walking through the history of pre- to post-World War II. This was so well done. Not just using maps but photos and short write ups explaining the events the maps are showing in this oversized book allowed the perspective I was looking for without getting bogged down in such a detailed map that I would be lost in the description and events. So while not every elevation and land mass was available for me to see, there was enough to see how things like Operation Barbarosa made incurssions into Russia so far and how dramatic the island hoping of the Pacific theater was and what all was going in the Africa theater that gets lost in the details of later developments of the war.

For an introduction in mapping out a historical even this was a perfect book to do so and it's more than just a coffee table book. You're not going to cut out any of the maps for a detailed look at a battle, but the overside nature of the book and filled with harrowing descriptions and dramatic photographs made this a useful tool to walk through the history of World War II in a way I wasn't really used to. Final Grade - A

[spike marlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that combines original maps and artifacts from all theatres of fighting during the Second World War with new up to date maps drawn by National Geographic cartographers. Many of the maps and artifacts come from the privately owned International Museum of the Second World War. The combination makes for a dramatic and interesting survey of the Second World War. Interestingly, the artifacts from the International Museum of the Second World War have since been sold to a private collector in the US and are no longer available to the public or to researchers. Hopefully that will change soon.

[Char Aznable · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping the book would have more detailed breakdowns about specific battles rather than giving maps and graphics for the general strokes (and key battles, in overview) but even as a very general resource the book is great.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of modern and contemporary maps, photos of associated artifacts, and contemporary photos. The accompanying text covers the most important features of the war and highlights the importance of the illustrations.

[Opa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and well written, the maps accompanying the events paint a complete picture

[John Majors · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a map nerd, and a wwii history nerd, so this was a fascinating book.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Atlas is packed with useful and interesting maps related to the war.

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the Smithsonian DK WWII Map by Map but still an excellent resource