From Library Journal
Despite the book's esteemed editor and its slick, glossy format, this World War II encyclopedia fails to deliver an above-average level of scholarship and has limited research value. First published in 1999 in London, it still has an unbalanced British flavor. The book offers excellent, detailed narratives on weapons, especially aircraft and naval vessels, but biographies and entries on key battles and campaigns are inconsistent in length and detail, and several contain inaccuracies and errors of fact. The best entry is the superb "Prelude to War"; however, surprisingly, there are no entries for significant topics like the Gestapo, PT boats, or the Battle of Komandorski Islands in 1943. Entries are augmented by numerous maps and hundreds of photographs (color photos not seen). Public libraries should instead consider Anne Sharp Wells's two-volume The Historical Dictionary of World War II (LJ 11/15/99). Not recommended. Col. William D. Bushnell, USMC (ret.), Sebascodegan Island, ME
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
World War II, for many historians, is considered the defining moment of the twentieth century. The world is still coping with fallout from the war in this, the next century. It was a time when there were heroes born, devils destroyed, and technologies developed. It is no surprise, therefore, that there are many encyclopedias on the history of World War II. This work is a worthy complement to such recent reference works as
The Oxford Companion to World War II (1995) and
World War II: The Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941-1945 (Random, 1996).
Keegan, a well-known editor of many other works on military history, states that his goal is to present a factual, chronological, and biographical history of World War II in one concise volume. He succeeds, though there are some glaring errors of fact (for example, the entry on Japanese Emperor Hirohito names him emperor of China at one point).Entries are usually short, less than one column, but are clear and detailed. The entry on Hitler, for example, only runs to slightly more than a column but provides a great amount of factual information on his life and role in the war.
This brevity of text makes room for the volume's major reason for inclusion on most reference shelves: the illustrations. Many of the black-and-white photos show people, places, machinery, and events. Some are harrowing (such as the Holocaust and Hiroshima photos), while others are awe-inspiring in their banality (such as one of a U.S. soldier picking up pieces of his equipment at the edge of the water of Utah beach on D-Day).High-school and public libraries may want to consider this inexpensive resource as a supplement to other World War II titles in the reference collection. REVWR
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