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Title: The Second World War in the West by Charles Messenger ISBN: 0-304-35985-8 Publisher: Cassell Pub. Date: 28 May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Outline history of World War II in the West
Comment: Cassell has been publishing these volumes for a year or so now in the United States, to reasonably good reviews. I have read several of them now (I think this is the third, and I have a fourth around here somewhere) and generally my take on them is as with other books: how good they are depends on the author. Gunther Rothenberg, the author of the volume on Napoleon, is an expert on the subject, and that shows in his book. H.P. Wilmott is an expert on carrier warfare and the Pacific War, and he wrote the volume on that, and made some intelligent points. Charles Messenger, the author of the present volume, is considered an expert on World War II in Europe, and especially in mobile warfare, so he gets the assignment here. While he does a very good job overall, he does fall short a bit in places.
One problem is scope. Messenger has a lot of ground to cover, but then so did Wilmott in his companion volume. Messenger seems lost sometimes in trying to sort out what he should talk about and what he's going to ignore. He leaves the naval aspect of the war basically aside, and does the same thing with most of the events of the air war. Instead he concentrates on the mobile warfare on the ground, which is after all his area of expertise.
Unfortunately, Messenger occasionally lets his British heritage influence influence what he writes about the war. So, for instance, the German troops on Sicily fight against the British and Canadians, while the Americans draw Italian opponents, who are easier to defeat. In reality, one of the American invasion beaches was almost overrun by a German panzer division, which was only stopped by naval gunfire.
The Soviet part in the war is dealt with in some detail, given the length of the overall book. Issues such as tank design and unit organization are covered briefly, but concisely. The strategies used by the various sides in prosecuting the war are gone over also, enough to understand the issues involved. Given the proportional sizes of the various armies, though, you could make the argument that the Eastern Front doesn't get its share of the coverage, and that the Western (and especially British) Front gets more than its fair share. Much is made, for instance, of the War in the North African desert. Though the author does note the small size of the forces involved compared with the campaigns in the east, he spends as much time on them anyway.
My review, therefore, is a bit mixed. The author certainly isn't John Keegan when it comes to crafting prose. While he's not terrible, he also doesn't come up with unconventional interpretations or reinterpretations of the war and its impact, as some of the other authors in this series do. The maps are tremendous, as always, though at least one is incomplete (the little numbered boxes are blank, unintentionally. It's fun to see if you can fill in the numbers correctly.) and sometimes the text seems only loosely connected to the maps involved.
On that note, I think I would only recommend the book to those whose interest in the Second World War is just starting. Perhaps a teenager would be interested. And of course, if the person involved is British, the emphasis would probably not be such an issue.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very useful for a comprehensive glance of World War II
Comment: This is a very useful book for a quick and comprehensive glance of World War II in the Western Theatre.
It is an interesting work that provides a general overview of the major military campaigns in the western theatre of operations.
It is well balanced and its maps are very useful, because they provide the reader with the means to analyse quickly the most important operations.
This book is a valid part of Cassel's History of warfare, that any reader concerned with military history should read.
Rating: 3
Summary: Holy Cow! Unbiased report on History?
Comment: Having seen the book in the store I (thought) I knew what I was getting. I was taken in by the graphics and pictures in the book. Now that I have completed the book I found the diagrams pretty confusing at times, adding only a little to the text. The text was most certainly written by a British (or "Anglo") author. Very little emphasis was made on major American (or Russian) achievements versus the emphasis on British achievements. The Americans came off as distrustful of Churchill, lesser experienced and derisive of the British. While I don't believe that was the case, the theme came through that way in this book. Additionally, no effort was spared addressing / defending the traditional complaints held against the British war effort. This has no place in a history book, in my mind -- unless that is the intent of the book. As a historian's personal opinion of the Western part of WWII, the book is fine. But as a history book, it comes off biased. Truly living up to the caution at the beginning of the book "the author's moral right has been asserted".
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Title: The Second World War in the Far East by H.P. Willmott, John Keegan ISBN: 0304361275 Publisher: Cassell Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The First World War by Robin Prior, Trevor Wilson ISBN: 030435256X Publisher: Cassell Academic Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The History of Warfare: Cold War by Lawrence Freedman ISBN: 030435290X Publisher: Cassell Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Ripples of Battle : How Wars of the Past Still Determine How We Fight, How We Live, and How We Think by VICTOR HANSON ISBN: 0385504004 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Roman Warfare by Adrian Goldsworthy ISBN: 0304362654 Publisher: Cassell Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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