The Penguin History of the Second World War [Mass Market Paperback]

Peter Calvocoressi (Author), Guy Wint (Author), John Pritchard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

Originally published under the title Total War, this acclaimed analysis of the causes and courses of World War II has stood the tests of time and criticism. The first part deals with the war in the West, and the second covers the war in the Pacific Theatre. The three highly regarded authors of this classic resource create a fluid narrative that provides vivid portraits of the war leaders and an unflinching exploration of the devastation and hardship of this major world conflict.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Combines elegance of style with mastery of the subject....It retains its preeminent position." --Lawrence Freedman, Sunday Times (London)

"A key work." --Financial Times

About the Author

Peter Calvocoressi worked on Ultra Intelligence at Bletchley Park and was Reader in International Affairs at Sussex University. He is now Chairman of Open University Educational Enterprises. Guy Wint is the author of THE BRITISH IN ASIA (1947). He died in 1969 after years as a journalist working for papers including the 'Manchester Guardian'. R John Pritchard has written or contributed to more than thirty-five books and has taught war studies and history in British and American universities.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 134 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140285024
• ISBN-13: 978-0140285024
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,122,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Basics of the War, April 16, 2001

By 

Beth Johnston - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Penguin History of the Second World War (Mass Market Paperback)

I found the previous review of this book uncharitable. True, no one who buys it should expect a page-turner. The book is dense, very well written, and delves more carefully into causes and effects of the war than most popular history. Calvocalressi is one of the most noted WWII historians, and he gives detailed accounts of the events leading up to the war, its military aspects, the home-front political concerns of the combatents, and the motivations of the actors (his sketches of Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt, Mussolini, and Stalin are both unforgettable and essential to understanding the shape the war took.) The book is a marvel of compression--Calvocalressi fits into 600 pages an amazing amount of data, and I found that when I turned to other, more expanded accounts of incidents that took a paragraph or two to outline in this book, there was little of importance that Calvocalressi had left out. I confess I haven't read the second half of the book, about the war in the East, because that is not my area of interest, but for a compressed and intelligent account of the war in Europe, Calvocalressi is an excellent starting point.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars breathtaking in scope; sometimes slow, but worth finishing, July 16, 2003

By 

M. Chackerian (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Penguin History of the Second World War (Mass Market Paperback)

Enormous interlocking frameworks of history, culture, domestic and international politics, and economics are slowly constructed, with the events of war put into this enormous structure. The aim is to explain why the events of World War II happened; the actual details of individual battles and other events are glossed over. The scope of the analysis presented is vast. The more specific knowledge the reader has on the details of the war, and of history and politics, the more they can appreciate the act of tying everything together. Some sections of the first half of the book are difficult to follow without prior detailed knowledge.

The authors attempt to be as impartial as possible, heaping praise and scorn on all sides of the conflicts. They take pains to correct what they consider to be myths regarding the history of the war. In one way, however, the authors do have a specific viewpoint; they are clearly writing from a British perspective. As an American reader, I would have preferred much less detailed information about Britain, and perhaps more information about the United States, which is scarcely mentioned.

This was by far the longest book I've ever read, with 1224 pages of regular text, divided into two 600 page halves on the war in Europe and Asia, respectively. Peter Calvocoressi, the author of the first 600 pages regarding the war in Europe, has a rather dense and archaic writing style that I found unnecessarily difficult to comprehend. This is compounded by his vocabulary peppered with words not in common use, for example "Hitler was a Manichee, as well as a chiliast".

The second half of the book on the Asian conflict, written by the other two authors, is much easier to read. The authors are much more successful in creating a coherency to all the information presented, making it much easier to digest. The last 200 (!) pages of the book are excellent, making the book definitely worth finishing.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Annoyingly "Anglo-centric", but a great effort and a GOOD READ, March 24, 2008

By 

Marc R. Wedner "mayreh" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Penguin History of the Second World War (Mass Market Paperback)

The posture and role of the US is, in my opinion under-appreciated in the Western War section and/or otherwise mistreated .Also, more attention to weapons and to (many) battles not discussed would have considerably improved the work.
That said, this is an almost great book and a literary gem. I chose this book over sleep several nights, Have your dictionary nearby as you read, and do read this book if the subject interests.