What do you think?
Rate this book
A Short History of World War II
Despite the numerous books on World War II, until now there has been no one-volume survey that was both objective and comprehensive. Previous volumes have usually been written from an exclusively British or American point of view, or have ignored the important causes and consequences of the War.
A Short History of World War II is essentially a military history, but it reaches from the peace settlements of World War I to the drastically altered postwar world of the late 1940's. Lucidly written and eminently readable, it is factual and accurate enough to satisfy professional historians. A Short History of World War II will appeal equally to the general reader, the veteran who fought in the War, and the student interested in understanding the contemporary political world.
A Short History of World War II is essentially a military history, but it reaches from the peace settlements of World War I to the drastically altered postwar world of the late 1940's. Lucidly written and eminently readable, it is factual and accurate enough to satisfy professional historians. A Short History of World War II will appeal equally to the general reader, the veteran who fought in the War, and the student interested in understanding the contemporary political world.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
217 people are currently reading
577 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
June 29, 2012
IT IS DONE
I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED.
I HAVE BEEN READING THIS SINCE JANUARY.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED.
I HAVE BEEN READING THIS SINCE JANUARY.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
August 21, 2012
Hello.
I am the author of the above-listed book on the history of World War Two, here to reveal that 98% of the quotes and anecdotes related in it are totally invented, and also to ask you: Does this matter? To me, probably not--it seems unlikely that anyone responsible for my continued solvency (my publisher; my department's chairman) will come across this, and if they do, I will claim to have had nothing to do with it. I will publicly write it off as slander, probably on the part of a disgruntled former student. I will be lying--Professor Bradley, if you are reading this: I am about to lie right to your smug little fucking face, and you will have to believe me, because there is no way to prove that I wrote this.
Again: Every war-widow testimonial, every artfully recreated battle scene, every noble-sounding last utterance on the part of some fast-expiring French soldier to be found in the book that you can buy above for $13.99 is a complete and total lie, bad fiction masquerading as history and seeming all the more real for how hokey and cinematic it all sounds--"cliche is ultimately the truest form of expression" is something you might have written in the margins of this book if you're a pretentious fucking moron, but you're wrong--cliche is cliche and those fabricated dying words, lost to the sounds of artillery fire, were probably actually "ACHHgurglegurgleFUCKi'mDYingAHCH!"
But to get back to my first question: Does it matter to YOU? Do you read history to receive an accurate, objective retelling of What Happened? To position yourself in time, make sense of a world that you have no way of proving you did not invent? To kill time on the commuter train because it's better than humoring your next-door neighbor, drunk already and eager to show you lurid cell phone photos of his mistress?
I ask because I am curious. I have lied in this, what will probably be my final contribution to the great, futile cause of comprehension, because I no longer have any answers. A life spent trying to understand and artfully depict four years of unprecedented slaughter and my blood cells and only son still rebel, the former multiplying and what's left of the latter rapidly diving itself w/ the assistance of the drugs I was always too busy to experiment with. My wife, a superior student of history in every respect, lies buried among corpses which when animated could not have summarized an article in that very day's paper and still they died the same, maybe happier.
Which is all to say: Five stars. He really makes history come alive.
I am the author of the above-listed book on the history of World War Two, here to reveal that 98% of the quotes and anecdotes related in it are totally invented, and also to ask you: Does this matter? To me, probably not--it seems unlikely that anyone responsible for my continued solvency (my publisher; my department's chairman) will come across this, and if they do, I will claim to have had nothing to do with it. I will publicly write it off as slander, probably on the part of a disgruntled former student. I will be lying--Professor Bradley, if you are reading this: I am about to lie right to your smug little fucking face, and you will have to believe me, because there is no way to prove that I wrote this.
Again: Every war-widow testimonial, every artfully recreated battle scene, every noble-sounding last utterance on the part of some fast-expiring French soldier to be found in the book that you can buy above for $13.99 is a complete and total lie, bad fiction masquerading as history and seeming all the more real for how hokey and cinematic it all sounds--"cliche is ultimately the truest form of expression" is something you might have written in the margins of this book if you're a pretentious fucking moron, but you're wrong--cliche is cliche and those fabricated dying words, lost to the sounds of artillery fire, were probably actually "ACHHgurglegurgleFUCKi'mDYingAHCH!"
But to get back to my first question: Does it matter to YOU? Do you read history to receive an accurate, objective retelling of What Happened? To position yourself in time, make sense of a world that you have no way of proving you did not invent? To kill time on the commuter train because it's better than humoring your next-door neighbor, drunk already and eager to show you lurid cell phone photos of his mistress?
I ask because I am curious. I have lied in this, what will probably be my final contribution to the great, futile cause of comprehension, because I no longer have any answers. A life spent trying to understand and artfully depict four years of unprecedented slaughter and my blood cells and only son still rebel, the former multiplying and what's left of the latter rapidly diving itself w/ the assistance of the drugs I was always too busy to experiment with. My wife, a superior student of history in every respect, lies buried among corpses which when animated could not have summarized an article in that very day's paper and still they died the same, maybe happier.
Which is all to say: Five stars. He really makes history come alive.
August 29, 2012
The perfect book for someone who realizes they don't really know what-happened-when in World War II. Well-organized, well-written, Stokesbury starts with the background causes and focuses on the basic political and military events of all the theaters of war. If I started my study of WWII over, I would read this first since it's a complete primer on the war. Then I would read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and the Churchill series (which I've stopped after two). And if I started this book again, I would get a few good maps to go alongside. He has a few hand-drawn maps of his own but they aren't even indexed in the back.
September 30, 2013
If you enjoy, as I do, World War II books that have a heavy human element, a more psychological discussion of how people live through horrible experiences, triumph in the face of adversity, or on the other side, find themselves committing horrible acts of hatred and violence, this is not the book for you. If however you want to be able to enjoy those books while also having a solid understanding of the nitty gritty facts, maneuvers, chronology and battles of World War II in order to contextualize the more individual-centric stories, this is absolutely the book for you. Having accepted a disappointing lack of knowledge of the politics, strategy and trajectory of World War II (I blame you Catholic school education), I picked up this book and found it to be a thorough and detailed explanation of the key aspects of the war. Though more meticulous students of war theory may take issue with his Stokesbury's interpretation or selection of detail, I found it well written and easily digestible, and exceptionally informative, exactly what I was looking for.
October 9, 2012
A few years ago, I got on a WWII kick and watched Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Saving Private Ryan. After watching those movies, I was really interested in refreshing my factual knowledge of World War II. Many books focus in on specific figures, alliances, battles, etc. Stokesbury takes a different tack, giving a great, broad stroke overview of the incidents leading up to the start of the war and then focuses in on specific figures, the strengths and weaknesses of both the Allies and the Axis powers, and decisive incidents, diplomatic, political and military. The result is a comprehensive, insightful and enjoyable account of one of the most horrific military clashes in history, a war that continues to resonate in American foreign and domestic policy and the world abroad. Highly recommended.
July 3, 2009
If you don't have time to do alot of research, this is a good overview.
April 16, 2012
Great overview of World War II.
June 18, 2023
“If it is part of the sadness of the human condition that [the men and women of the free nations who fought WWII] could not solve the problems of their children’s generation, it is part of the glory of it that they so resolutely faced their own.”
My high school history teacher recommended this book during my senior year; I got it as a Christmas present during my freshman year of college, and I finally got around to reading it as a senior in college.
This was an even-keeled, comprehensive, as close as you can come to an unbiased telling of the events before, during, and immediately following WWII. The writing is sharp, never lacking crucial details of battles, strategies, or statistics, but never getting lost in those details either. It moves at a perfect pace: fast enough to cover the entire war in a reasonable page count, but slow enough to take in and learn about some of the lesser known (at least to me), yet equally important, stages of the war, such as the Norway invasions, the North African and Italian campaigns, and the retaking of the Philippines. A great overview of the defining moment of an entire generation, that points to and leaves room for even more research and stories to be told from the war that I can’t wait to find. If you are at all interested in learning about WWII, whether you know some, nothing, or a lot about it going in, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. This is a hidden gem.
My high school history teacher recommended this book during my senior year; I got it as a Christmas present during my freshman year of college, and I finally got around to reading it as a senior in college.
This was an even-keeled, comprehensive, as close as you can come to an unbiased telling of the events before, during, and immediately following WWII. The writing is sharp, never lacking crucial details of battles, strategies, or statistics, but never getting lost in those details either. It moves at a perfect pace: fast enough to cover the entire war in a reasonable page count, but slow enough to take in and learn about some of the lesser known (at least to me), yet equally important, stages of the war, such as the Norway invasions, the North African and Italian campaigns, and the retaking of the Philippines. A great overview of the defining moment of an entire generation, that points to and leaves room for even more research and stories to be told from the war that I can’t wait to find. If you are at all interested in learning about WWII, whether you know some, nothing, or a lot about it going in, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. This is a hidden gem.
September 11, 2018
Wasn't planning on reading this one as I have done plenty of reading on WWII. Additionally I think there are also more hours of documentary time dedicated to it than the war actually lasted. However I had read the same author's Short History of WWI as I had less knowledge on that and found that book to be incredibly complete without providing unnecessary commentary. This booked worked the same and I would reccomend it as I did the other one as a good historical source if someone is looking for one.
December 6, 2019
Summarizing a subject as immense as WWII into 400 pages requires careful choices about what to include, and for the most part Stokesbury makes good ones (though inevitably no one will agree with all of them). His narratives are tight and succinct, though maybe too much so. His analytic history, however, is excellent and summarizes complex topics informatively with great insight. An excellent single-volume summary.
September 1, 2018
This is a great read. Stokesbury has a creative touch to writing history. I liked all the military statistics for the various theaters and battles. It is very informative. I'm going to read his work on World War i. If you want a good feel for all that occurred during World War ii, with an objective perspective, read this.
November 29, 2018
A short History of WWII is as the title implies a short book to go around the aspects of World War II along with the major battles and decisions that took place and shaped europe between 1939-1945 and following 1945 through the Cold War ( The Soviet Unions Demands in Europe and the Effect on China in the after math of the war).
A fast Read though for the important info of the war.
A fast Read though for the important info of the war.
July 10, 2021
Third in my quest for a good one-volume history of WWII, Stokesbury's entry is a mediocre and inconsistent entry. And he totally ignores the interesting questions of the war, like: what was the Nazi goal? or, how could Japan and Germany have cooperated more? or, why did the Holocaust happen?
Plodding and dull.
Plodding and dull.
June 29, 2024
Excellent explanation of the causes of the causes and consequences of World War II
The author neatly fits the many unique pieces of WWII, the factors leading up, and the consequences into a compressive picture. The evaluation of events have the reader feel they are sitting together over drinks. There are a couple aviation errors effecting when the book was written.
The author neatly fits the many unique pieces of WWII, the factors leading up, and the consequences into a compressive picture. The evaluation of events have the reader feel they are sitting together over drinks. There are a couple aviation errors effecting when the book was written.
October 11, 2019
Great overview of the causes of the war, the war itself, and the aftermath. Covers various war topics (such as the Resistance, or submarine battles in the Atlantic) in their own chapters while also moving chronologically through the war itself.
February 10, 2020
Excellent book for starters. This contains an effective summary of the great war. I feel that this will work as the ground work from which more learning can follow. Lookig forward to reading more books of World War 2.
October 27, 2020
It's short and necessary detail of war with useful remark and discussion of the events made me locked into this book throughout the week. You might not have all your "what and why's" answer here, but for a beginning, it's a good book. I think.
July 14, 2022
Brilliant read, very informative and yet so concise. Several maps that add to the overall picture of the truly world war. highly recommended for people like me, who even though we had a notion of the war ,really didn't know of the different theatres and where they fitted in.
April 1, 2023
Not an academic work imo. A fair amount of inaccuracies exists, e.g, the part where the German military doctrine were influenced by B.H.L.Hart has been debunked a while back, but overall actually decent story telling.
August 17, 2017
This military history is a very informative overview of World War II. My knowledge of World War II has greatly increased after reading this book.
August 9, 2018
A good summary of WW2
April 16, 2019
Read it a long time ago, but I think I found it informative. (Date read is a guesss).
April 23, 2019
This book is a very readable overview of World War II. It helped fill in the gaps in my understanding, and it was well worth the time it took to read.
May 6, 2019
Very readable overview. Superb book.
September 13, 2021
This is a good introduction and overview of World War II, useful for review purposes or as a place to start your exploration of this period of history.
March 7, 2024
literally the only book you need to read if you know nothing meaningful about world war 2 and want to change that
August 16, 2025
excellent review of WW II.
May 20, 2021
Succinct, easy to understand, and fascinating, but sometimes gets too caught up in details that I glaze over for a few pages at a time.
September 28, 2012
For those of you who are inclined to overrating, please don't be deterred by my 3 star review (plus, its more like a 3.5 star review.) Keep in mind that few subjects are as complicated or have had so much ink spilt over as World War II. One of the hardest issues facing a reader is determining which book to read when.
The wide breadth and shallow depth of book suited me quite well due to my embarrassingly poor grasp on the major events of WWII. Prior to this book, my piecemeal understanding of the subject was derived mainly from movies, documentaries, and more recently a few WWII memoirs. Stokesbury paints broadly with a wide brush and offers only modest levels of commentary on major events. Though Stokesbury, as any WWII author must do, was forced to jump from arena to arena and thus time frame to time frame, this book is organized chronologically by arena. I appreciated how the author often gave more attention to the catalysts that sparked individual conflicts than the conflicts themselves. In my judgment, this is critical for one's understanding of a major military conflict.
I did have a few minor disappointments. For those reading the kindle edition, the maps are both scarce and of such poor quality that they proves to be worthless. One must read this book in the company of a good atlas. I used a cheap one: The Historical Atlas of World War II. Also, Stokesbury's prose was a little wooden and clunky at times but still quite readable. My most significant concern about this book was the glaring lack of citations. Though the author provides a 20 page annotated bibliography, he does not use notes. While I concede this may be a necessary byproduct of a "Short History" it is hard to overlook. The author writes as if he is simply recounting a narrative of the war, as if he is a leading authority on the subject. There are a few times where he acknowledges the broader field of literature, but this lands this work squarely into popular history. Students, serious readers, and historians must bear this in mind and look elsewhere for any serious treatment on the issue. I can however, bear with these shortcomings as part of a "short history."
I spent some time in deliberation between this and John Keegan's The Second World War. After reading 50 pages of Keegan, I decided to deter his work till I had a better grasp on the chronology of the war. I feel I chose well. Keegan would be a better choice for beginner/intermediate readers. I will read him in the next 3-5 years.
With all this being said, I do give the book a moderate to high recommendation for anyone looking for a western overview of the events of the War.
The wide breadth and shallow depth of book suited me quite well due to my embarrassingly poor grasp on the major events of WWII. Prior to this book, my piecemeal understanding of the subject was derived mainly from movies, documentaries, and more recently a few WWII memoirs. Stokesbury paints broadly with a wide brush and offers only modest levels of commentary on major events. Though Stokesbury, as any WWII author must do, was forced to jump from arena to arena and thus time frame to time frame, this book is organized chronologically by arena. I appreciated how the author often gave more attention to the catalysts that sparked individual conflicts than the conflicts themselves. In my judgment, this is critical for one's understanding of a major military conflict.
I did have a few minor disappointments. For those reading the kindle edition, the maps are both scarce and of such poor quality that they proves to be worthless. One must read this book in the company of a good atlas. I used a cheap one: The Historical Atlas of World War II. Also, Stokesbury's prose was a little wooden and clunky at times but still quite readable. My most significant concern about this book was the glaring lack of citations. Though the author provides a 20 page annotated bibliography, he does not use notes. While I concede this may be a necessary byproduct of a "Short History" it is hard to overlook. The author writes as if he is simply recounting a narrative of the war, as if he is a leading authority on the subject. There are a few times where he acknowledges the broader field of literature, but this lands this work squarely into popular history. Students, serious readers, and historians must bear this in mind and look elsewhere for any serious treatment on the issue. I can however, bear with these shortcomings as part of a "short history."
I spent some time in deliberation between this and John Keegan's The Second World War. After reading 50 pages of Keegan, I decided to deter his work till I had a better grasp on the chronology of the war. I feel I chose well. Keegan would be a better choice for beginner/intermediate readers. I will read him in the next 3-5 years.
With all this being said, I do give the book a moderate to high recommendation for anyone looking for a western overview of the events of the War.
February 21, 2017
One word, amazing. I loved every part of this book. I don't know why this isn't required reading for high school students. There was way more World history in this book than my entire college World History class.
I am still impressed with the lasting nature of the war on modern international relations. Maybe that's because I am naive, or just plain ignorant. Either way, amazing is still the word I would pick.
I am still impressed with the lasting nature of the war on modern international relations. Maybe that's because I am naive, or just plain ignorant. Either way, amazing is still the word I would pick.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews