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Title: Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy ISBN: 0-393-31619-X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (29 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: History in real depth - extraordinary.
Comment: Richard Overy is professor of modern history at King's College, London. He has appeared numerous times on British television as an expert in his field. No wonder 'Why the Allies Won' is such a masterpiece of analytical history, probably answering once and for all one of the great questions of the last century. With Germany and Japan (helped by Mussolini's Italy) rampaging through Europe and the Pacific, and poised to dominate most of the world, with USA standing indecisively on the sidelines, with Stalin believing in the validity of Hitler's peace treaty, with France beaten after just six weeks, and with only Britain fighting a rearguard action, how in heavens name did the situation get turned around?
Overy obviously needs to point to certain pivotal battles/battlegrounds (Midway, Stalingrad, Kursk, the Atlantic, and Normandy) but he centers also on the other factors that changed history. The leadership, the morale of the troops on both sides, the determination of the British, the fighting spirit of the Russians. He points out the inefficiencies and bureaucracy of the German industrial machine, the incredible efficiency of American industry, which geared up so rapidly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He points out that, whilst the bombing of German cities has been questioned by other historians and is now commonly regarded as having served a questionable purpose and was of doubtful morality, that it was of critical strategic importance, having drawn off the Luftwaffe from the Eastern Front, where the European war was fundamentally decided.
Overy's analysis of the battle for control of the Atlantic displays particular insight. Though many historians point to the Allies' radar and code-breaking abilities as being the key, Overy delves deeper and shows how basic good planning and good training was the essential added element that eventually beat the German U-boats.
Despite what revisionist history tells us, there was never any certainty that the Allies would win the war. Quite the opposite. Even Churchill and Roosevelt had to come to terms with the fact that, at some point, they might have to make a conditional peace with Germany and Japan. Overy recounts how the Allies managed to regain superiority only after a series of extremely decisive military campaigns. He also points to the many other factors of the war that are too often left unsaid or not understood.
For a REAL insight into five years that changed the world, you should not miss this extraordinary book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Masterfully detailed and written
Comment: Overy masterfully attacks a subject made all the more elusive by its apparent obviousness; how it was that the great coalition of forces fighting fascism during the Second World War, managed to win a none-too-certain victory. Overy analyses critical components of the Allied victory in the war, and does so in a prose both dramatic, and filled with historical detail. He covers key campaigns on the sea, land, and air -in a detail that is surprising given the breadth of subject matter; and follows his blow-by-blow account of the war by analyses of the economies and technological development of the powers at war; and finally by the leadership of the warring countries, and the moral codes that guided them.
This is an excellent book through and through -from the anecdotes and battle strategies discussed in the planning and execution of Midway and Stalingrad, to the remarkable treatise included on the moral world-view of the Nazi hierarchy, and how it affected the moral! e of the German soldier. Any history enthusiast, let alone any student of this great and terrible war, should have this book in his or her personal collection. It is truly one of those indispensable resources that anyone from layman to general can learn from.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very informative
Comment: Overy takes a long look at some of the less "flashy" issues of the Second World War and shows that it takes more than bold generals and heroic soldiers to win a war. This book opened my eyes to a new view of the war, regrettably one which I was quick to overlook in the past. I recommend this book to anyone with more than a passing interest in the history of WWII. It may be a bit too detailed for the casual reader.
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Title: Russia's War by Richard Overy ISBN: 0140271694 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Eagle Against the Sun : The American War With Japan by Ronald Spector ISBN: 0394741013 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 October, 1985 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Second World War by John Keegan ISBN: 014011341X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich by Omer Bartov, Cmer Bartov ISBN: 0195079035 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: November, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene B. Sledge, Paul Fussell ISBN: 0195067142 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: October, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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