Trabalho de fôlego, sem dúvida. No entanto, duro de ler. O formato de diário torna a leitura enfadonha. Os fatos mais importantes travam uma batalha pelo espaço com fatos menores. Aqueles carecem de análise, enquanto estes precisam de síntese.

the second largest book i finished so far...

Most thorough account of human tyranny

I’ve read many books on this subject, but have to say that this has to be the most thoroughly researched publication I have read. It begins with the first shots being fired in 1939, then carries through the history of the war in an almost day-by-day process. It includes the bestiality as well as the bravery of hundreds of thousands, or millions, who lived and died throughout the progress of the war. I particularly liked how it would go from The European theater to the Pacific and back from paragraph to paragraph. It required some concentration to maintain the story line, but it worked for me.

The only two things I had a problem with was the lack of discussion about the Japanese invasion of China, the “rape of Nanking”, etc. and at times, within the same paragraph the author would jump from one subject to another.

All in all, this was very well done.

Opera imponente e di enorme interesse. Gilbert snocciola nel dettaglio gli eventi e i morti della seconda guerra mondiale lasciandomi esterefatto di fino a dove la natura umana si è potuta spingere.

History well-taught, History to be learned by all

So many places of action and loss, so many intertwined timelines, brilliantly expounded upon. So many lives placed at the brink of pain and madness - so many more crossing that line. It is hard to overstate the humbling scope of this book. It catalogs the rolling boulders of madness that engulfed almost our entire planet between 1939 and 1945, while keeping us sane by leading us by the hand throughout a narrative enriched by elegant placement of names, dates, accounts and maps. A magnificently-put-together lesson to us all -- bright, balanced and yet brutal.

This book seemed to focus on every detail of violence that occurred during the war. I did not finish it because I am more interested in finding a book that deals primarily with the motivations and strategies on a broader scale.

An exhaustive read

But if you want a complete understanding of an event that shaped the world we live in today - you can't do better than this.

As quase mil páginas do livro podem enganar aqueles que pensam que encontrarão, neste volume, detalhes mínimos sobre a grande guerra. Não que o livro falhe em sua missão de nos passar informações, mas, afinal, é impossível detalhar 6 anos de uma das guerras mais vorazes que a humanidade já viu em uma quantidade tão diminuta de páginas.
Aqui, Martin Gilbert foca nos jogos sociopolíticos da guerra e dos líderes que a protagonizaram, não cedendo muitas linhas a outros personagens menores já conhecidos, como a pobre Anne Frank, pois o objetivo do historiador é nos passar o panorama geral do evento, as sequências e também consequências dos acontecimentos!
Ainda que seja um dos mais infames períodos históricos conhecidos, trabalhado nas escolas e largamente abordado no cinema, fiquei chocada com os níveis da crueldade humana e com todas as atrocidades cometidas contra os judeus (chocada sim, mas nada surpresa).
Apesar de ser bem focado e, de certa forma, condensado, não recomendo o livro como material didático para aqueles em fase escolar ou de vestibular, devido ao conteúdo extenso demais para uma prova. Mas àqueles que desejam conhecer este triste evento com mais afinco, a leitura é uma ótima indicação!

A detailed account of the events which happened during the second world war and how it progressed. The book gives in details the facts rather than presenting an opinionated view. A good start point for anyone who wants to learn the history of second world war in detail

During the coronavirus pandemic, learn what Nazis and the Democratic Party have in common.

The parallels between Nazi oppression of Europe and Democratic Party oppression of the United States become obvious on reading Martin Gilbert’s mammoth history of World War II.

While I originally wanted to learn more about the Nazi oppression of European nations only, imperialist policies of fascist Italy and imperial Japan reinforced several ideas about how dictatorships not only suppress, but eventually kill freedom-loving people. Of course, Nazi actions in Europe parallel the policies of the Democratic Party in the United States, so reading a dated history of World War II is still relevant.

Besides that, the 747 pages of text—and many full-page maps and photos—are sure to occupy time well spent indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.

Some of the parallels between Nazis and Democratic politicians are obvious. First is the dominant Nazi belief that there is some human life which is not worth living. For Nazis, it was Jews, the Roma people (Gypsies), Slavs, and others (homosexuals and mentally ill persons). Democrats, similarly, despise the unborn, the handicapped newborn, and the elderly. That’s why their policies endorse abortion legal throughout the nine months of pregnancy for any reason whatsoever, infanticide (the killing of handicapped newborns), and euthanasia (the killing of the elderly and denial of care to medically-vulnerable senior citizens).

Second are the means which Nazis used and Democratic politicians use to obtain and maintain political power. For Nazis, terror and violence were the order of the day. For Democrats, much the same, although the terror is usually masked in ad hominem and politically-correct attacks against their opponents, as when an opponent is branded as “homophobic” or “racist” when the person attacked is anything but. Sometimes, Democratic politicians endorse the practices of violent domestic terrorist groups like Antifa to intimidate law-abiding citizens.

Third is the devastation which the Nazis and Democrats created. Nazi destruction of Europe is obvious; we have still photo and film documentation of the damage caused to European cities throughout their long reign of terror. The evidence of Democratic devastation is not as clear as a photo of a destroyed Warsaw, but nonetheless apparent. Democratic abortion policies, for example, have not only killed unborn children, but also harmed or killed mothers and alienated fathers. Democratic assaults on heterosexual normativity have affected the family and the importance of the husband and father in the family as much as any Nazi bomb would have destroyed an ancient European church.

Gilbert’s interpolation of historical facts with countless narratives of victims of the war makes the reading of his 747 pages suspenseful and powerfully emotional. Although we know how the “story” ends (the Nazis lose, and Western civilization is saved from a vicious totalitarian threat), we do not know the specific facts of how Europe saved itself from Nazi oppression. Gilbert supplies those facts and relates painful episodes of people killed by the Nazis.

Similarly, while we know the horrors of Democratic policies attacking human life, what is not so clear is whether we twenty-first century people have learned anything from Nazi oppression of Jewish and Christian (Western) civilization. One could answer “obviously not” since the policies of the Democratic Party in the United States are as oppressive as Nazi ideology yet are still endorsed by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who align themselves with that party. One can only hope that Americans will reject Democrats’ Nazi-like policies and practices in November’s elections.

This is a good, and informative book. Well researched. This book may not be for everyone as it is peppered with a lot of the atrocities done during the war. Some of them will pull you away from the rest of this book and this telling of history. Some can be quite jarring.

Gilbert's book is a straight day-by-day account without summarizing on his part. The reader is the one who summarizes, and certain themes appear relentlessly: the war within the war (the German war against the Jews), the human price of war (for civilians, especially), the strength of Russian resistance, the growing technological aspect of the war (Churchill predicted that "machines will battle machines), etc. The absence of a point of view (or its non-overt presence) makes the book less powerful as a literary work, but the awful scope of the war gets reinforced again and again as individual facts accrue into a stunning whole. In a large way, I prefer the kind of writing that someone like Paul Johnson provides, but the book's ability to convey the sheer awfulness of the war still has an impact.