De leitura obrigatória

The author chose to focus on providing a detailed factual account, giving a blow by blow chronicle on a daily basis rather than offering a more interpretive analysis. In doing so, he successfully tells a one dimensional story. However, he tends to overlook the Soviet losses, with 27 million or more perishing, while meticulously describing atrocities committed against the Brits, Americans, Germans, and Japanese when their cities were destroyed. Despite this, the book presents an incredible amount of research and information that is mind-boggling, making us question how such events could have occurred.

Wow! What a terrible, horrific, bloody, incomprehensible, period of world history. The book gives almost a day by day account from the war's beginning, with the military/racial conquests of Nazi Germany, to the long lasting effects years later. It really re-defines what human beings are possible of, from the extremes of unthinkable brutality, and lack of conscience and respect for human life, to the amazing perseverance of people of many races, and from many countries, facing unthinkable pain, loss, and odds.

An amazing overview of the whole conflict, I would recommend this book to everyone, to bring to light what this huge part of our recent history was about, the sacrifices and trials involved, and to gain from it, knowledge that might help inform our opinions and about right and wrong, what is morally acceptable, both in life, and in current conflicts, and issues that we have a say in.

There were many times during Hitler's rise to power, where situations could have been turned, and years of strife, been avoided. Hitler preyed upon people's fears, promoted hate, and justified morally unthinkable acts in the name of a political and racial ideology. It's sad to see people today, promoting causes in the same ways. Why can't we learn?

There are a couple quotes that have stuck with me, ones that ring true in current politics, both in the nationally, and internationally, that I think speak volumes about the WWII era, as well as current times:

“The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” --Adolf Hitler --

“All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” --Hermann Goering--

Excellent. Martin Gilbert’s tome on WW2 is a must read, so that we don’t let global conflagration happen again.

An outstanding history!

this book tells us ,especially us children,who never experienced it before,about the horrers of the holocaust and the Japanese occupation.I felt we were lucky to live in a peaceful environment.I also pitied these victims for having died such a horrible way.If you are interested in history,I suggest you read this book.It provides a variety of information that may be of good use to some.

Um livro para ser lido com paciência, histórico até a medula que se permite uma opinião apenas nas últimas linhas.

Não estou a ler o livro original, mas os 8 vols. "dados" com o Expresso, há alguns anos.
Acabei de terminar o vol. 7, e pensei compartilhar este pequeno momento, único, que me fez sorrir:
7 vol. - pág. 109 - "De Quatrocentos homens enviados de combóio de Gleiwitz para Nordhausen, no dia 2 de Janeiro, Seiscentos morreram durante o trajecto."

Por outro lado, percebo cada vez melhor o meu marido, polaco, quando este se insurgia contra os russos. O comportamento de Estaline para com a Polónia e o povo Polaco foi efectivamente deplorável, mas também aquilo que se poderia esperar de outro ditador - megalómano, líder de um governo totalitário.
Hitler, sem comentários. Foi uma pena ter sido rejeitado pela Academia de Belas Artes de Viena em 1907.

Mais uma gralha de texto no vol. 8 - pag. 137- capítulo "Um caso interminável" - tentem encontrar caso estejam curiosos!

Very important book

Very interesting, well written, hard to put down. The enormous nu,bet of peoples killed is staggering. Must never forget how the Nazis came to power. History repeats itself, so knowledge from this book is important.

The book's strength is the author's ability to keep the stories of all the theaters of a massive war moving in parallel. The fact that I felt I could actually understand the American, European, Asian, Pacific, African, and Holocaust timelines and the overall trends of the war is an achievement. Like any juggling act, the process is going to get repetitive - a 6 year war where humans attack and defend and counterattack and murder and bomb and spy on each other and the losers refuse to give in for far too long is bound to repeat itself enough times over 750 pages to be numbing. But that's the nature of the subject material, and every repetitive cycle just adds to the mind blowing enormity of the war.

The weakness of the book is the shallowness of the personal narratives. It's not to say that it's only an account of army movements and casualty statistics - the individual stories are present. But they feel like they're only used to give up-close examples of what's happening, rather than a window into the emotions experienced. Maybe that's too harsh - the possibility for detail in WWII is limitless, and the juggling act could easily be thrown off. But I had a better experience reading "A World Undone" about WWI - I felt the war there more than I did here.

Nothing about the book ever said it would cover the lead up to the war, but I was surprised when chapter 1 started with the invasion of Poland. It feels silly to suggest this book needs more pages. But I finished the WWI book and started this book without better researching Hitler's rise to power, Japan's motives, and how imperialism set up the world theaters - I wish I had studied them first.

At the end of the day I got what I wanted - a book that would take on WWII in one readable project and tell the entire story from start to finish, to read before choosing aspects of the war I wanted to learn more about. I got that. Maybe it was too much to ask for it to be a gripping read.

Great book for those who want to learn everything about the second world war

Livro 1 de 2022

Faltam palavras para determinar o tamanho gigantesco dessa obra para a História. Não há muito o que dizer: simplesmente ler e aplaudir o imenso trabalho narrativo.