Victory: World War II in Real Time

by Associated Press, David Eisenhower (Foreword), Alan Axelrod (Editor)

A commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the WWII victory, Victory covers the war through "breaking news” stories and photographs from the Associated Press—the main US chronicler of the conflict.

Victory commemorates the 75th anniversary of the end of May 8, 1945, VE Day; August 14, VJ Day; and September 2, the formal signing of the instrument of surrender. This stunning book covers the war through contemporary Associated Press coverage of 40–45 key events, plus human-interest accounts. The stories and photographs are presented chronologically so that readers of today can experience the scope of the war in the same way people of that era learned of the events. From Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, to Japan’s ceremonial signing of surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, each event is vividly brought to life through images and text from the original articles; historian Alan Axelrod provides insightful introductory text for each chapter.
 

224 pages, Hardcover

Published November 10, 2020

About the author

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributing members of the cooperative.

As of 2005, the news collected by the AP is published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,000 television and radio broadcasters. The photograph library of the AP consists of over 10 million images. The Associated Press operates 243 news bureaus, and it serves at least 120 countries, with an international staff located all over the world.

Associated Press also operates The Associated Press Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. The AP Radio also offers news and public affairs features, feeds of news sound bites, and long form coverage of major events.

As part of their cooperative agreement with The Associated Press, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. For example, on page two of every edition of The Washington Post, the newspaper's masthead includes the statement, "The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to use for re-publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and all local news of spontaneous origin published herein."

The AP employs the "inverted pyramid formula" for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the story's essential meaning and news information.

Cutbacks at longtime U.S. rival United Press International, most significantly in 1993, left the AP as the primary nationally oriented news service based in the United States, although United Press International still produces and distributes news stories daily. Other English-language news services, such as Reuters and the English-language service of Agence France-Presse, are based outside the United States. More recently launched internet news services, such as All Headline News (AHN) are becoming competitive to the traditional wire services like the AP.

Reviews

[Matthew Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A profoundly important book that is masterfully put together. Incredible images, news articles, and brief introductions to each year of the Second World War offer a first hand look at this pivotal conflict that forever reoriented the path of human history. For those familiar with the topic there is still much to learn here from firsthand accounts of events as they occurred in real time. In reading the book it illuminated to me how Axis Powers went about pacifying their terrible deeds through the defense of their actions being done for defense, security, and other such lies done for the purpose of furthering their sphere of influence. Reading the book in 2026 is incredibly frightening given how quickly tyrannical rule swept across the globe then and mass atrocities were carried out.

I cannot recommend this book enough, it is important to remember history and I thought this book was a powerful time capsule and collection of insight, images, and totaling of the Second World War. I will cherish my copy of this book for the rest of my life.

[Vicki Hodder · Rating 4 out of 5]

As David Eisenhower's intro notes, a remarkably accurate history of America in WWII as seen through the eyes of the reporters who covered it. It uses photos and stories from newspapers of all sizes to tell both the main story and bring to light several details that may not be widely known.

[Tam Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using the A.P articles published in the United States during WWII, this book explores the entirety of the conflict. However, it does not even mention the women reporters who also covered the war, often at greater risk to their own lives by the American soldiers and male AP reporters who didn't want them there. The only reason it did not get all the stars.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is an interesting concept, but it feels more like a neat "look through" book than a "sit down and read front to back" book. Also, the physical copy itself is cheap and is already falling apart, and I'm only on page 8. So I'm going to put this one back on the shelf.

[Elly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A banger. Here’s some if my favorites:

“Imperial headquarters at Tokyo declared…”

“His body exhibited for crowds to revile.”

YANKS, FRENCH ENTER PARIS

[JoAnn Plant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting to see how the war unfolded from the comforts of your home, just by reading a newspaper! Totally amazing!