If any of you don't have these I would highly recommend them as great reads for the WWII buffs out there.
The battle for history Re-Fighting world war II
John Keegan.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Consider this book a means to an end: much of it is actually a bibliographic essay in which the distinguished military historian John Keegan points to what he considers the most important books on the Second World War. Anybody interested in the conflict will want to consult Keegan's list as they add to their personal libraries. Keegan also lays out the war's historiography, pointing out how much still is not known about what happened, especially on Europe's eastern front. He makes the surprising comment that the definitive history of the Second World War has yet been written. To the extent that no single person has expertise in the dozen or so languages necessary to grasp all of the essential literature on the subject--or the many years it would take to master this material--he may have a point. But has he forgotten his own one-volume book, The Second World War? In any event, this isn't the first, second, or third book on the Second World War that you will want to buy. But as your collection grows, you will find this one indispensable.
From Publishers Weekly
While there are some astute observations about the nature of historical writing here, The Battle for History is essentially a lengthy bibliography. In sections discussing general histories and biographies as well as books on campaigns, military intelligence and technology, and occupation and resistance, Keegan, a premier military historian, evaluates the books he has found most helpful and notes where work has yet to be done, as, for example, in the inner workings of the Japanese high command, Stalin as a war leader and the German-Polish war in 1939. He also looks at the evolving perspective (much aided by hindsight) on issues such as whether Britain should have sued for peace after the fall of France and whether blanket bombing was effective. Keegan never claims to be complete, and he is not-such perennial favorites as Harrison Salisbury's Nine Hundred Days, William Manchester's The Last Lion and Goodbye, Darkness aren't here, nor is Keegan's own important The Second World War. Some readers will find his choices quirky, for while he doesn't mention Joachim Fests's worthy Hitler, he does give credit to insights in David Irving's Hitler's War (prefaced by ample warning about Irving's own far right tendencies). There are also resources along the lines of Hitler's 74 war directives, or Fuhrerweisungen, which general readers won't locate easily. Ultimately, this will be of most help to amateurs of WWII who want to contextualize and expand their knowledge.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Simmers Paintshop store for skinners and simmers - The Battle For History: Re-fighting World War II
A WAR TO BE WON fighting the second world war
Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett
review From Publishers Weekly
Scholarship and insight place this book in the front rank of military history written in the 20th century's final decade. The authorsDMurray is senior fellow at Washington's Institute for Defense Analyses and Millett is a chaired professor of military history at Ohio StateDmake no secret of their convictions on personal, institutional and operational issues, but are nevertheless remarkably successful at avoiding the armchair debunking that mars so many histories of the period. Backed by meticulous operational analysis, Murray and Millett compellingly view the war as a death grapple between civilization (however imperfect) and genocidal, racist imperialism. Both sides absorbed unprecedented levels of punishment and still functioned effectively, yet the authors show that the Allies mobilized resources to an extraordinary degree and developed unprecedented levels of cooperation against Germany and Japan, with U.S. armed forces in particular demonstrating high learning curves. After recovering from Stalin's purges, by 1943 the Red Army was successfully combining numbers and technology to take full advantage of every opportunity offered by a declining Wehrmacht. On the other side of the front, instead of making the hard choices required by Germany's limited resources, Hitler and his military leaders attempted everything simultaneously. They increasingly substituted ideology for men and equipment. Japan, too, fought a vitalist war, with will power unsuccessfully substituting for both fire power and rational calculation. The result, Murray and Millett brilliantly show, was to exclude negotiation and persuasion, leaving victory in battle the only choice in modern history's only total war. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
http://astore.amazon.com/simmerspain...149830-5639617
TOTAL WAR vols# 1 The western Hemisphere and vol # 2 covers The greater east asia and pacific conflict
Peter Calvocoressi
Guy Wint and John Pritchard
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=606561...sortby%3D0%26nsa%3D1
these are very very good books highly detailed and well researched.
Enjoy
Linear Mode
