The Second World War: A Complete History

May 5, 2021A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book:“Second World War” by Sir Martin GilbertI purchased this book in the Kindle format because of its description of being a thorough and complete history of the cataclysmic events occurring in a sequential date format. I thoroughly enjoyed this book though it took me almost three weeks to read it. While I was in the first couple of chapters, I noted that the maps presented in the Kindle format were impossible to read, at least for me as I had a Kindle Paper white reader. It was too frustrating to read locations and other details. Mid way through my reading I decided I wanted to have a copy of this book in my library. Consequently, I ordered a hard bound copy from a book dealer in the US. There were many hard bounds from the UK but they appeared to be reprints.This book is a straight out history book of almost 800 pages and certainly not for the uninitiated, especially those who have never read many books about WW II. I read the Kindle edition to completion (primarily because there were many words and items that needed additional defining and looking up and the Kindle did this most times very well). The hardbound edition I purchased had very readable maps and clear photos and a complete bibliography containing many books I already read or purchased.I have read many books about the WW II but this one was very Anglo-Centric and yet quite interesting and very informative. I was able to easily follow the major events from the very start of WW II to the unconditional surrenders of both Germany and Japan. This book presented the incalculable atrocities committed by all the participants. I knew from other authors that Americans committed murderers of Prisoners of War but this author was very vivid in those atrocities committed by all of the Allies, including Americans soldiers. That is the reality of war and the critical conditions that required extreme measures. I know for a fact, that the overall treatment of POW's was most humane by the Americans and its Allies excluding, however, the Soviet Union. War on the scale of WW II was fertile grounds for unimaginable horrors.We know from reading other histories of WW II that the Nazi Germans were bent on the extermination of all the Jews in Europe and produced a process on an industrial level. This book gives some very alarming statistics on a very terrifying and unimaginable level that astounded me as the Germans pressed their efforts throughout Europe and into the Soviet Union and as they retreated back when their war capabilities were diminishing. What Jews Germans missed, the Russians added to the numbers of Jews as they pushed the Germans back westward.The statistics on the wounded and death of men on both sides of the conflagration were too large to even imagine but added to the factual reality and scope of this war.While the European and Russian operations are quite thorough in their setting out, the events in Asia were minimized in their startling statistics. The use or consideration of nuclear weaponry was not isolated to the Americans but both the Germans and the Russians were engaged in devolving these war weapons. It was the Americans that completed the development and testing for use against the Japanese who were so fanatical in the idea of non surrender that the US felt compelled to save at least a million plus casualties of allied troops and sailors.There were so many other things I learned about WW II that I could have mentioned but the breaking of the German codes via the Enigma device by the British was outstanding and the cracking of the Japanese codes by the Americans saved many lives and added to the shortening of the War.I consider the reading of this book by students of History to be a must and its writing was superb and easy to understand and I consequently easily gave it five stars out of five.

Martin Gilbert's "The Second World War: A Complete History" provides a solid overview of the greatest military conflict the world has seen in its history. Gilbert sets out to give a broad (I stress BROAD) overview of the war on a chronological basis, sometimes going day by day at times. Gilbert accomplishes this goal admirably for the most part, and this work has many interesting stories of WWII that even I have not heard of (myself a grad student who loves reading about WWII, have read 50+ books on the war already at age 24), so I enjoyed reading about those stories and events. Gilbert also provides a great bibliography section in the back of the book containing the abundant amount of sources he used for his work, and there are many great books on WWII included in this bibliography for further reading on any topic of WWII imaginable.Briefly, a couple of negatives/statements on the book. This book, as stated previously, is a broad overview of 6 years of war. Do not expect anything in depth...Gilbert also jumps around throughout the book. He will start off a paragraph talking about what is going on in in the Italian campaign and 2 sentences later (in same paragraph) talks about Italian partisans getting massacred by Germans in another part of Italy, and then talks about events going on at a concentration camp in Poland on the same day. This type of writing will confuse people who are not experienced WWII readers I'd say and sometimes confused me as far as following his writing at times. Gilbert also spends a lot of time in this book on the various atrocities towards civilians throughout the war, perhaps too much for some. He wrote an excellent book on the Holocaust and its horrors, and I sometimes felt I was reading it again as a few chapters had more "on this day so many Jews died" then talking about the battles going on or the war. This is just different from some WWII overviews, so just be prepared for that. I also noticed a few errors...they may be matter of opinion/different sources but I suppose when you take on such a monumental task WWII, it can happen.Overall as I said, this is a solid overview...I just read it to rehash everything I've learned on WWII as I figured he would mention most of the big names, battles, etc, in case I had forgotten them over time, and I was not disappointed.

I have started reading this book and I can tell it will take some time as it is an almost 800 page tome. That said, if you want to understand the details of this war and all the moves and countermoves taken by the Allies, which are mindboggling in their scope and daring, this is the book to read. It also chronicles the suffering inflicted on the Jews, the Poles and other populations which the Nazis turned their evil to. Gilbert also explains how the regular German army were strongly opposed to the cruel measures taken by the Nazis - this is one example of the information you need to have a balanced understanding of World War II.

3 Sterne für die Lieferung, ansonsten war ich sehr enttäuscht. Das Buch sah sehr schmuddelig aus, die Seiten schief und beschmutzt. Man sagte mir, dass englische Bücher meistens so aussehen.

Excelente libro histórico. Parece como una megaentrada de wikipedia a veces pero es bastante informativo.

It is written in narrative format with timeline based on Adolf Hitler's orders and resolutions. An analytical approch would have enhaced the effort. Kepping in view the knowledge of present generation who knows world war through hollywood movies it is imperative that a higly analytical approach backed with eye witness history would have guided youth to travel through experience of two world wars.

Extremely readable book which must have required an enormous amount of research. I am only part way through but find it difficult to put down. Martin Gilbert is a great writer.