World War Two: Heads of State, Politicians and Collaborators: A Concise Outline

by Jack J. Kanski

Jack J. Kanski presents concise, illustrated books exploring the roles of the key personalities during the Second World War and their contributions in the conflict.

Following on from the first five books in his A Concise Outline series, Kanski now offers readers information pertaining to the influential individuals from Great Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union, amongst others. In World War Two: Heads of State, Politicians and Collaborators Kanski divides the information into three parts: firstly describing heads of state such as Roosevelt and Emperor Hirohito, before moving on to other politicians such as Churchill and Reynaud, and finally concluding with important collaborators during the period.

These books are designed as companion texts and when read together will give readers a good understanding of the important people and their contributions. Written in a reader-friendly bullet-point format accompanied by many colour images, Kanski’s latest book will act as a stepping stone for the general reader interested in World War Two.

141 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 23, 2018

Reviews

[Nadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a bullet points form and supplemented with portraits, Heads of State provides a succinct high level summary of WWII politicians and their contributions and role in WWII. As indicated in the title, this is a concise summary, rather than a detailed outline and therefore suitable for readers looking to refresh their memory or gain a basic understanding of WWII politics. 

I sometimes struggle to keep my attention when reading history books as they are often dry and lengthy. Jack Kanski's book does not fall into that category. I found the book very easy to read and finished it in one sitting. 

Many thanks to Matador and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before the dawn of the internet (and yes, I am old enough to remember such a time) there were these quaint things called encyclopaedias. For the handful of youngsters who read my book reviews, these were “books or a set of books giving information on many subjects or on many aspects of one subject and typically arranged alphabetically”. This definition is courtesy of Google, which is how people get their information these days, the internet being the death knell for the encyclopaedia. But as we all know; the internet’s many strengths are also its weaknesses – too much information making it sometimes difficult to find exactly what you want and a related difficulty in being able to judge the veracity of what is served. I doubt the encyclopaedia will ever return to its pre-internet eminence, but in some limited senses, when the subject matter is focused and the facts unlikely to change, such a medium is welcome. Which brings me to the subject of this review.

This title, sub-headed “A Concise Outline” is effectively an encyclopaedia. The volume basically does what it says on the tin (or the jacket cover to be precise) and contains concise entries on all the major Second World War heads of state, politicians and collaborators – though by “collaborator”, the author means governments that collaborated with the Axis powers, such as Vichy France, rather than individuals like Lord Haw Haw. Each entry contains bullet points giving all the important and pertinent facts and it’s thus easy to skim read and find what you want.

This is a surprisingly useful text and for a subject matter such as a period of history which has been studied exhaustively, and thus the essential facts are unlikely to change, the encyclopaedia format works well. Even for an adept Googler, it is easier to skim through the pages of this tome to find biographical details of Winston Churchill or Heidrich Himmler than wade through Wikipedia.

Apparently, this is one of a series of titles, the others dealing with figures from other periods of history. I haven’t seen any of the other titles, but certainly this is a worthwhile addition to the history buff’s library.

[Gio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short and to-the-point, this short book briefly summarises the roles and contributions of politicians, heads of states and collaborators in World War II. Each entry is written in bullet points, giving you only the basic details of who did what when. I can see it come in useful for history students who need to learn and memorise quick facts for their tests.