May 5, 2021

A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book:“Second World War” by Sir Martin Gilbert

I 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.

On the one hand I am tempted to respond to the negative reviews by saying, "well that's just like your opinion man." But while I disagree with their evaluation, I would definitely say that the description of the narrative style is accurate, and for me the style is what gives this book its strength.

We are all familiar with the big events and the overall numbers from the conflict. What this book does to deliver its impact is to remind us that those events and statistics came about one day at a time affecting and through the actions of real individual people. More than 75 years later it's hard to conceptualize years of conflict and millions killed, but with real names and numbers you can visualize, the human impact comes into clearer focus. From Anne Frank to Kurt Waldheim to "the fifty" of "The Great Escape" and even to the individual emotions of the key leaders we get the picture of how the people in the conflict experienced it.

We don't get all the details of the major events (because the each need a book of their own) but we do see how they fit together and how the war took shape. The combination of the broad scope of the conflict mixed with the particular events affecting identifiable actors and victims makes for a moving and informative book.

For mostly any type of reader, this is an excellent work: curious readers will learn much, researchers will find it an invaluable resource, and anybody will gain a pertinent knowledge of this war - the greatest (in scale) of all wars in history.

Unfortunately, and very surprisingly, there is no historical preface whatsoever: the book begins with the invasion of Poland, 1 September 1939, pronto. Thus, with no foundation, the reader might be quite irritated, especially if (s)he doesn't already have a fairly good knowledge of the events leading to the Second World War. This will not, however, impede the ability to read the book: still, the first two chapters or so concentrate primarily on the Nazi atrocities within Poland during and in the months after its conquest.

Past that point, however, the narrative removes itself from any particular perspective or base, and the reader is put in view of the war from all perspectives - Allied, Axis, and of the agony of occupied Europe, the Holocaust, which is not ignored by this history, and nor does its tragic story interfere with the flow of history itself.

This book is rather lengthy, which may be the delight or dismay of a potential reader: if you prefer longer, more extensive, comprehensive work, you will not be disappointed. If you had in mind a short, brief history just to fill you in on the basic happenings of the war, you might want to look elsewhere. But either way this book is a paragon of excellence in the career of historians.

This is a very readable book. However, I found several faults. First, there seems a lot of holocaust stuff. I kept reading about all the horrible things that were done. Maybe that's good to read. Also there are a lot of little details and stories. A plane is shot down, killing 47 rescued prisoners of war. Interesting. But in a war that cost tens of millions of lives, it that really that important?? There are a lot of individual names and stories, which give flavor and color to the story, but perhaps all things considered were not really that important and should not have been included in a volume such as this.

The Pacific War is greatly neglected. The Battle of Midway, which I gather was a turning point in the war, was tossed off in a single paragraph. I had thought that that battle turned the tide of the Pacific Naval situation, and the Japanese never recovered from that loss. How did they lose? What did they do? What did we do? Why was it so important? None of these are answered.

What about MacArthur in the Phillipines? Was he negligent in not having stashed enough food and water for his retreating troops? Was he negligent in grouping his planes in a tight circle so there were easily destroyed from the air? Was he such a military genius? Who knows, from this book. What about Pearl Harbor? What did that mean? Why did it happen? not covered.

The Battle of the Bulge is tossed off in a page, almost as if the author was getting weary. What about Patton? Why was he so great? Or was he? Why did we win the Battle of the Bulge?

Anyway, you get the idea. It's an interesting read, and provides insights as to the war. But one feels that a lot of minor (though compelling ) details were included, and many important aspects were minimized or just ignored. Too bad. He could have done a better job.

What can a reviewer say about it acknowledged classic in the field of study. This text is an excellent comprehensive overview concerning the history of World War II. I am a creative writer, who will be working soon on a novel that takes place during WWII. It is a novel loosely based on the life of my uncle, who died near the beginning of the war, in the North African theater, and my own dad, who served toward the end of the war in the Pacific theater, and then went on to serve in the Korean War. Both men were officers in the "Army air Corps"/Air Force. I am using this book as a general reference source. Having said that, I am someone who was already a serious student of WWII, and someone who has read a great many books on different aspects of the conflict. I have also written many academic papers on different aspects of World War II. In those contexts I have repeatedly found myself going back to this work, in order to understand the larger context, surrounding whatever else I was studying at the time. I have also taken undergraduate college class where this book was a principal textbook. I guess I consider this book to be an old friend of mine, when it comes to researching World War II. It is hard to keep all the facts at particulars of a conflict like that straight at one of the ones head. This is especially true when you read a lot of books on the subject, seen a lot of movies, or heard a lot of stories etc. so this work by Martin Gilbert, becomes an excellent reference source, to refer back to and check your understanding of certain things.

This book is especially valuable into specific historical research contexts. 1 since this book is written by an Englishman, it has a particular Anglo European focus. The word bias would not be fair or even accurate. So if you want to particularly learn about the war in Europe or, in England before the entry of the US into the war on December 7, 1941, this is definitely a book to go to. 2 if you are reading any other books by Mr. Gilbert, he's written a great many, on more specific or detailed subjects concerning the war, or its aftermath, this is a book you should definitely have handy. Those more in-depth or specific books often assume a base of knowledge that is contained in here. But which readers, particularly younger readers, or American readers may not have. This is definitely one of about half a dozen books that I think everyone interested in World War II should have on their shelf.

The title of this book is misleading, and I have only myself to blame. I would have given it 3 stars, but since I made mistakes in selecting it without reading the other reviews, I gave it 4 stars.

I should have realized that Churchill's biographer would have concentrated on, well, Churchill. Roosevelt and Stalin make almost "cameo" appearances for the Allies. Hitler is mentioned so many times that you might be forgiven for thinking that the whole war was between Churchill and Hitler. I did find the repeated references to Prince Philip unique to his British perspective -- almost as if Gilbert was ensuring that he touched all the royalty bases. Curiously, however, I can't recall much about Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II).

Also, as a Brit, Gilbert's "Complete" history is "completely" Euro-centric. Perhaps because the British were humiliated at Singapore (other Churchill biographers report his fury that it fell so easily and to an inferior number of troops) and basically withdrew from the Pacific until the end of the war, the Pacific theater is largely passed over in a few paragraphs here and there. Gilbert does inform us that the British battleship Duke of York was present at Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender.

Gilbert also authored a history of the Holocaust, and perhaps 20% of the pages of this book are dedicated to telling the story of both populations and individuals. He tells it in so much individual detail, however, that it numbed me to the big picture.

The organization is relentlessly chronological. It literally proceeds day by day. At many points, it will describe what is happening in Europe on a specific day, and then, sometimes in the same paragraph, say "also on that day, X happened in North Africa and Y happened in the Pacific." I found myself excited when we went into the second half of a month since it meant a new month was on the horizon.

Finally, in balancing the numerous stories of Axis war crimes with a few stories of Allied war crimes, Gilbert usually picks examples of small groups of Americans behaving badly. He is very sympathetic to the Soviet leaders who practiced organized and wide-spread terror, for example. I do not recall any examples of British troops acting badly. There are several examples of Commonwealth troops being mistreated by the Japanese in the limited Pacific material.

In summary, a few years ago The Great Courses put out a video series on WWII in Europe presented by an American specialist in Russian studies. I found it very interesting to see WWII told from a Soviet perspective. This book was a very large investment in time but gave me an example of WWII told from a British perspective.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. I don't mean history books. I mean ALL books. Martin wrote this book to read like a novel. I was engrossed from the first few chapters and found it hard to put down. How many history books can you say THAT about? I learned so much from this book. You get glimpses at times of other sides of many of the major personalities involved in the war as well. If you are still unsure whether to buy it, I suggest downloading a sample. You should be able to tell within a few pages if it's for you or not.

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.

I had never read a complete account of the Second World War. I was looking for a book that would bring together all the various events that seemed in my own mind to define its progress. The Blitzkrieg of Poland, Dunkirk, Stalingrad, Pearl Harbour and so on towards D-day. I chose Martin Gilbert's book because of having read his history of WW1 and being impressed by his evident humanity and respect for all combatants and the recognition that all who died were individuals with loved ones. He does not disappoint here. The style is pure narrative and the larger events are interspersed with stories of individuals. There is very little judgement and Gilbert allows the events themselves to define "right" and "wrong" if we wish to try to define it beyond all the carnage and horror.

The text just became more and more harrowing, more and more gripping as the war unfolds. It became unrelenting in its record of shocking and virtually unbelievable horror. At times I was reduced to tears.

It has to be five stars. Or none.

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.

Gostei de ler. . A história é bem centrada no sofrimento dos judeus, mas valeu, pois a história deles, o holocausto nunca pode ser esquecida!

A sequencia dos eventos principais da guerra foi abordada e deu para receber uma nocão geral da historia triste que a humanidade sofreu naqueles anos.

Eduardo