The World War II Desk Reference [Hardcover]

Douglas Brinkley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2004

More than 12 million American men and women entered the U.S. armed forces during World War II, and millions more worked and sacrificed at home to help the Allied cause to defeat the Axis powers. At the close of the war, America had become the leading nation on the global stage, and its veterans returned home to forge a vibrant postwar society. Written under the direction of two distinguished historians, "The World War II Desk Reference" explains in clear prose, backed by rosters of statistics, time lines, and maps, the global cataclysm that was World War II.

But this volume is not a typical almanac. With material ranging from battlefronts to important military commanders to armaments, among the backdrop of all the necessary political, social, and economic factors, Douglas Brinkley and Michael E. Haskew's reference will prove invaluable to readers. Photographs, lists, time lines, tables, glossaries, and maps encapsulate many pieces of complicated information, making "The World War II Desk Reference" immensely browsable. The book also includes a helpful resource on national World War II monuments, organizations, and museums.

Throughout the book, you'll find oral histories culled from several sources, including the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, which holds the world's largest repository of valuable letters, journals, and other war-related records. Excerpted from those who fought on both sides, these accounts add a deeply touching, profoundly personal dimension seldom found in other books on World War II.

In a modern world plagued by terrorism, dictators, and weapons of mass destruction, Brinkley and Haskew's seminal work reminds usthat America's role in World War II led to a truly monumental victory. For World War II enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone interested in our nation's history, this is the one book to own.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

An incredibly comprehensive and extraordinarily accessible reference for anyone with any interest in World War II facts and profiles. Styled like an encyclopedia, this reference book is stunningly detailed, providing both text and photos for nearly every topic imaginable regarding the war.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Douglas Brinkley is director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and professor of history at the University of New Orleans. Brinkley's recent publications include Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Progress and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation with Stephen E. Ambrose. He lives in New Orleans with his wife, Anne, and daughter, Benton.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Collins Reference; First Edition edition (May 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060526513
• ISBN-13: 978-0060526511
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,334,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Douglas Brinkley is currently a Professor of History at Rice University and a Fellow at the James Baker III Institute of Public Policy. He completed his bachelor's degree at Ohio State University and received his doctorate in U.S. Diplomatic History from Georgetown University in 1989. He then spent a year at the U.S. Naval Academy and Princeton University teaching history. While a professor at Hofstra University, Dr. Brinkley spearheaded the American Odyssey course, in which he took students on numerous cross-country treks where they visited historic sites and met seminal figures in politics and literature. Dr. Brinkley's 1994 book, The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey chronicled his first experience teaching this innovative on-the-road class which became the progenitor to C-SPAN's Yellow School Bus.

Five of Dr. Brinkley's books have been selected as New York Times "Notable Books of the Year": Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years(1992), Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, with Townsend Hoopes (1992), The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House (1998), Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Progress (2003), and The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2006).

Five of his most recent publications have become New York Times best-sellers: The Reagan Diaries, (2007), The Great Deluge (2006), The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion (2005), Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (2004) and Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6, 1944 with Ronald J. Drez (2004). The Great Deluge (2006), was the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book award.

Before coming to Rice, Dr. Brinkley served as Professor of History and Director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. From 1994 until 2005 he was Stephen E. Ambrose Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans. During his tenure there he wrote two books with the late Professor Ambrose: Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 (1997) and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today (2002). On the literary front, Dr. Brinkley has edited Jack Kerouac's diaries, Hunter S. Thompson's letters and Theodore Dreiser's travelogue. His work on civil rights includes Rosa Parks (2000) and the forthcoming Portable Civil Rights Reader.

He won the Benjamin Franklin Award for The American Heritage History of the United States (1998) and the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize for Driven Patriot (1993). He was awarded the Business Week Book of the Year Award for Wheels for the World and was also named 2004 Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. He has received honorary doctorates from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Dr. Brinkley is contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Book Review and American Heritage. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly, he is also a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Club. In a recent profile, the Chicago Tribune deemed him "America's new past master."

Forthcoming publications include The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the crusade for America and a biography of Walter Cronkite.

He lives in Austin and Houston, Texas with his wife and three children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The World War II Desk Reference, June 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The World War II Desk Reference (Hardcover)

At last! A reference that includes all the major topics relating to World War II and not just the military and political history. I was 10 when Germany entered Poland and 16 when the war ended. Yet, at that young age, I followed the war assiduously. I listened to nightly newscasts and read the local newspaper accounts, even making scrapbooks of the war's progress. The Desk Reference of World War II recently published by Harper Collins is the best single reference to that epochal struggle. There have been many books published on the years 1939 to 1945, many dealing with the military campaigns and other with the causes or other specific aspects of the war. This book is not a narrative,although some chapters chronicle the material in story form. Rather, it is a reference; and what a reference it is. The 33 maps are excellent and easily followed. Numerous tables detail a wealth of information. Whatever topic of the war interests you, you will probably find it here. Timelines outline the major events from 1918 to 1950, the political history from 1918 to 1945, and the holocaust. The causes of the war are discussed. Other chapters relate how the countries -- allies and axis -- paid for the war. Treaties, pacts, alliances, charters, and conferences describe how the countries of europe made decisions relating to peace and war, land and aid from Versailles at the end of world War I to the end of the second World War.
Brief accounts sketch the politicians, dictators, military personnel, spies, and propagandists on both sides of the war. Maps, tables, and narrative provide an excellent overview of the military campaigns in Europe, Africa, and Asia. It's all here: military arms and eqjuipment, how the home front in the major participating countries of the war coped and maintained morale. This book even deals with the arts: books, films, songs, visual art, and entertainers.
Perhaps the most enlightening feature of this volume is its equal treatment of both protagonists and antagonists. Anyone interested in World War II will want to add this volume to their library and refer to it frequently.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WWII Desk Reference, February 17, 2009

By 

George Raitt (St. Michaels,) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World War II Desk Reference (Hardcover)

Excellent for what it is intended as a ready reference,
It is not something that you would want to read from cover to cover.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Takes on a lot of information in a small volume, November 24, 2008

By 

Scott Walker (Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The World War II Desk Reference (Hardcover)

Brinkley says that this book "more than fills the bill. It explains in clear, unadorned prose, backed by rosters of statistics, time lines, and thumbnail sketches, the global cataclysm that was World War II." And Haskew says it " ....is designed as a resource for both the novice and the experienced student of the war.....this book is arranged by theme. It is not intended to serve as a chronological narrative of world war II....." The authors said they wrote this because there was nothing out there that covered the era in a style of a handy reference.

I think this Reference is excellent for the beginning student and will complement the more extensive historical library. It is detailed and sometimes repetitive but not exhaustively. Interspersed throughout are eyewitness reports quoted from multiple individuals from both sides. All the world players are given ample pages. Also it is loaded with charts and maps, although the maps are not overused. The category listings are alphabetical, though I would of preferred a time-scale in some instances.

Covered are major land, sea, and air engagements and lists of the casualties. The book covers influential officers and soldiers, and also the equipment (arms) used, from the horses to the atomic bomb. The Reference even goes as far as discussing the intelligence, espionage, and propaganda that was used. The book gives us an idea of what life was like on the home front and mans' inhumanity against man----the atrocities. It goes on to discuss the aftermath and how the war changed the face of the world. The arts, books, and films that came out of the war are also covered. (How Hollywood has changed since then.) Near the end is a wealth of further related topics, memorials, and finally a glossary of terms.

The causes for the second world war were many, ultimately it came down to the fighting men. In an age of economic crisis the peoples' resolve and massive production efforts are mind boggling, even today. In times of strife the people sometimes choose a leader they think will solve their problems, often at the cost of their liberties or economic destruction. Post-war brought in two income families and new roles for woman; both a blessing and a curse.

Wish you well
Scott