eBook The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War ePub

As someone with only a general understanding of WWII (I've only recently started reading history on this topic), I found this to be a generally great one-volume history of WWII. Roberts does a nice job of laying out the run-up to war, the brutality of the Pacific and Eastern fronts, and the strengths and weaknesses of the major powers involved in the conflict (with a special emphasis on England, Germany, and the Soviet Union). He makes good use of quotes from primary sources, and I appreciated the inclusion of certain works directly in the text (such as The Writer at War, a book with which I was unfamiliar).

His thesis is that, no matter the superiority of its soldiers or military and strategic processes and (initially) planning, Germany would fail in its attempt to control Europe because its dictator, Hitler, was a true Nazi and, therefore, was ultimately motivated his ideology and not realistic considerations. This mania resulted in massive strategic failures, such as the invasion of the USSR in June 1941 or the German declaration of war on the U.S. following Pearl Harbor, as well as tactical errors (for example, it was more important that German troops "stand and die" than strategically retreat because, among other things, Hitler believed what mattered was the will of the troops, which would supposedly be more crucial to the outcome than other, more "conventional" factors such as logistics and concentration of forces).

In addition to giving a lot of attention to Hitler's psyche, and his dominance of the German military command (along with that command's moral cravenness), Roberts explores the interaction between the political and military leaders on the Allied side. Although this is not a detailed analysis, given the breadth of the overall subject, it reveals both the greatness of the vision (e.g., Churchill's commitment to resisting German aggression) and the petty ambitions that hindered the Ally effort (e.g., U.S. General Mark Clark's failure to eliminate or greatly reduce the retreating German troops in Italy because he wanted the prestige of being the first Allied commander to enter an Axis capitol).

There are three weaknesses in the book, two of which are significant but one of those is solely a Kindle issue. The less-important defect is that sometimes, most notably in some of the later chapters, Roberts shoe-horns in some information (usually a revealing anecdote about an important figure such as Hitler) with only the barest connection to the subject at hand. These digressions aren't long (sometimes no more than 2 paragraphs), but they are distracting. It's as if Roberts remembered that he found something interesting and just stuck it in because he remembered it at that moment.

The more significant issue is that this is really a history of the continental war. There are only 3 1/3 chapters on Japan: the first chapter focuses on the aggressions of all the Axis powers leading up to the outbreak of the war, with about a third of the chapter devoted to Japan's imperialistic ambitions; the remaining chapters focus on the Pearl Harbor attack, the Battle of Midway, and the close of the Pacific campaign (Iwo Jima through Nagasaki and the Japanese surrender). Each chapter (or portion thereof) is well-written and fascinating, but there is very little discussion or analysis of Japan's leaders, their ideology, and the way that ideology assisted or hindered its military (including to what extent Japanese soldiers adhered to that ideology--for example, there is no examination of the kamikaze fighters and whether they all willingly went to their deaths). Roberts writes very well about his subject; I just wish he had included more about the Pacific theater.

The final, Kindle-specific problem is that there are some poor transcriptions, leading to incomplete or nonsensical sentences. It is particularly frustrating because these errors become more frequent later in the book, garbling conclusions that Roberts is attempting to make. This is an excellent book and it deserves a better quality Kindle edition.

A solid history with emphasis on the Allies’ effort against Germany (only 2 of 18 chapters devoted to the Pacific War against Japan, one of those largely perfunctory). Solid analysis of why the Axis lost and several interesting notes on individuals in the war.

Unfortunately, the e-book is marred by numerous text formatting errors where sentences are interrupted with repeated text from prior paragraphs/sentences requiring great effort to make sense of what author actually wrote. First time I’ve experienced such shoddy work from Amazon.

This book is a great read for folks interested the big picture with bits of the back story. The author does a good job of putting numerical statistics into comparative context so you can appreciate impact and consequence.

The book focus is mostly on the European continent with significant Russian front analysis, which I feel was appropriate and informative. The efforts of the US are fairly comprehensive and contrasted well. The Pacific gets far less attention, and is not central.

The author spends a lot of time on Hitler and comparing organizational structures of the Allies and the Axis powers which are very interesting and well done. Could almost be a separate book. Some of his conclusions are pressed a bit redundantly by the end.

I did think that the book could have used another proof read as I often tripped over sentence structure. The frequent use of commas and dashes in long sentences required re-reads to track the subject. Once you get used to the authors style it's easier. It's non- fiction so don't expect elegant style.

It's big and I got through it in less than two weeks so I definitely found it gripping.

I've read literally 100 different books on WWII from William Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" through books from authors as diverse as Ambrose, Hastings, and others. Almost all of the books, in a variety of ways, imply or even outright claim that the Allies beat the Nazis.

Roberts new book, however, takes a different tack, explaining that Hitler was the cause of the Germany's defeat. But not in the usual way (hubris, arrogance or stupidity). For example, Roberts makes a compelling case that Hitler, though obsessed with details and controlling his Generals, was an amateur strategist. It's almost as if Hitler got lucky defeating Poland, then France, then almost Britain and Russia. He either fired, killed or otherwise intimidated his generals, so they gave him no strategic expertise whatsoever.

One of the more satisfying parts of the book is that it spent a lot of words talking about the Russian Front, something that often gets overlooked by the better histories of WWII. Of course, with a somewhat improved flow of information out of Russia these days, I think historians can provide a more in-depth study of the Eastern Front. It's even more clear to me that Joseph Stalin cared so little about his soldiers, he just sent in wave after wave, while the Germans had limited resources.

Great book, one that should be on the reading list of anyone with a real interest in WWII history.

Good history but in desperate need of editing. The text is a mess in some sections with the same sentence appearing multiple times and run on sentences. Maybe it is just the Kindle version.

Since retirement, I've read a couple hundred books about WWII.

Andrew Robert's is a good historian, but these 800 pages are filled with documented, informed & very candid opinions of why the allies defeated the axis. The focus here is on national leadership and senior military decision making, it's consequences and missed opportunities.

IMHO, material of this nature is best read after reading considerable amounts of detail battle/campaign descriptions. This context literally puts flesh & bones on the quality of strategic decisions & how they were made.