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Title: The Second World War: A Complete History by Martin Gilbert ISBN: 0-8050-1788-7 Publisher: Owl Books (NY) Pub. Date: 01 November, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (17 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: a disappointment
Comment: I started this book with high hopes. Martin Gilbert is a famous historian and has done much to educate the world about the holocaust. I also feel the idea of a strictly chronological blow-by-blow history of World War II is a promising premise. However, the book provides little more than a collection of facts arranged chronologically.
There is absolutely no historical or political context--the invasion of Poland starts on page 1 and he never backtracks to fill it in. There is very little analysis, usually just a listing of what battles occurred each month and how many tanks, planes, and/or casualties on each side. Instead of forming an arresting narrative, it just becomes a mind-numbing list of events that are never tied together. The format could lend itself to a discussion of global strategy, being organized by time rather than region. However, this is never pursued.
The only reason I would look at this book again is if I needed to reference it for facts or dates. A great deal of scholarship was clearly involved in assembling these and, as such, it might be a useful reference, but from such a book I would expect much more.
Instead of reading this book, for a truly excellent history of WWII, read Weinberg's "A World at Arms".
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the Best Treatments of WW II
Comment: Martin Gilbert's volume on the Second World War is truly a complete history. It is not just a story of battles and great men, but also a story of unparalleled suffering. The Second World War was the most destructive conflict ever to afflict our planet, and Gilbert makes the reader realize this, with his relentlessness in reporting death. In an almost day by day account, Gilbert informs the reader that while all the great battles were taking place, while generals were winning fame, the people of Europe, especially the Jews, were suffering unimaginable horrors. This is the true legacy of World War Two, and Gilbert gets the point across well. As you read the book, you cannot help but feel sick at the awesome loss of life taking place in Hitler's concentration camps. The vivid descriptions of gassings, and the ovens working 24 hours a day, made me put the book down more than once.
Gilbert also talks about the battles, and his descriptions of these are just as vivid if not as detailed. You can imagine what it was like to be there, but don't know everything that happened. In the end you get the sense that Gilbert's focus was definitely not on the military aspects, but on the overall cost of life. He does not glorify this conflict in anyway, and he leaves you believing that maybe no one really won the war.
This is not a book I would tackle all at once, but maybe keep it by your bedside for those restless nights, although you may find you will not be able to put it down once you pick it up. I reccommend this for someone who knows a bit about the war and wants a good general overview. Someone who has done a lot of background reading may not find it as stimulating, but it is still worth reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: An incredible book
Comment: World War II is the area of history that I study the most, and this book is its best description that I have ever seen. The detail is incredible and for the first time I was given a truly complete, unbiased picture of the war.
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Title: The First World War: A Complete History by Martin Gilbert ISBN: 0805047344 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Second World War by John Keegan ISBN: 014011341X Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1990 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War by Martin Gilbert ISBN: 0805003487 Publisher: Owl Books (NY) Pub. Date: 01 April, 1987 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert ISBN: 0805023968 Publisher: Owl Books (NY) Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume 3, 1952-1999 by Martin Gilbert ISBN: 0380713950 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 21 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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