May 5, 2021
A Review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book:“Second World War” by Sir Martin Gilbert

I purchased this book in the Kindle format because of its description of being a thorough and complete history of the cataclysmic events occurring in a sequential date format. I thoroughly enjoyed this book though it took me almost three weeks to read it. While I was in the first couple of chapters, I noted that the maps presented in the Kindle format were impossible to read, at least for me as I had a Kindle Paper white reader. It was too frustrating to read locations and other details. Mid way through my reading I decided I wanted to have a copy of this book in my library. Consequently, I ordered a hard bound copy from a book dealer in the US. There were many hard bounds from the UK but they appeared to be reprints.

This book is a straight out history book of almost 800 pages and certainly not for the uninitiated, especially those who have never read many books about WW II. I read the Kindle edition to completion (primarily because there were many words and items that needed additional defining and looking up and the Kindle did this most times very well). The hardbound edition I purchased had very readable maps and clear photos and a complete bibliography containing many books I already read or purchased.

I have read many books about the WW II but this one was very Anglo-Centric and yet quite interesting and very informative. I was able to easily follow the major events from the very start of WW II to the unconditional surrenders of both Germany and Japan. This book presented the incalculable atrocities committed by all the participants. I knew from other authors that Americans committed murderers of Prisoners of War but this author was very vivid in those atrocities committed by all of the Allies, including Americans soldiers. That is the reality of war and the critical conditions that required extreme measures. I know for a fact, that the overall treatment of POW's was most humane by the Americans and its Allies excluding, however, the Soviet Union. War on the scale of WW II was fertile grounds for unimaginable horrors.

We know from reading other histories of WW II that the Nazi Germans were bent on the extermination of all the Jews in Europe and produced a process on an industrial level. This book gives some very alarming statistics on a very terrifying and unimaginable level that astounded me as the Germans pressed their efforts throughout Europe and into the Soviet Union and as they retreated back when their war capabilities were diminishing. What Jews Germans missed, the Russians added to the numbers of Jews as they pushed the Germans back westward.

The statistics on the wounded and death of men on both sides of the conflagration were too large to even imagine but added to the factual reality and scope of this war.

While the European and Russian operations are quite thorough in their setting out, the events in Asia were minimized in their startling statistics. The use or consideration of nuclear weaponry was not isolated to the Americans but both the Germans and the Russians were engaged in devolving these war weapons. It was the Americans that completed the development and testing for use against the Japanese who were so fanatical in the idea of non surrender that the US felt compelled to save at least a million plus casualties of allied troops and sailors.

There were so many other things I learned about WW II that I could have mentioned but the breaking of the German codes via the Enigma device by the British was outstanding and the cracking of the Japanese codes by the Americans saved many lives and added to the shortening of the War.

I consider the reading of this book by students of History to be a must and its writing was superb and easy to understand and I consequently easily gave it five stars out of five.

An excellent recitation of the battles and deaths of World War II. But not nearly enough description of the political choices within nations. Not a good choice for me.

This was an amazing step by step accounting of the Second World War. I loved how Martin Gilbert would take you to the important decisions and actions each day since 1939's German invasion of Poland. He does a great job throughout the entire war and exposes in great detail the horrific crimes of the Nazi party while in power. For people interested in how the war was built up however you will be disappointed since this book starts with the invasion of Poland and not with the election of Adolf Hitler to Germany's Chancellor position. Amazing book, with an incredible author. I have read his book on the First World War as well which was just as good and I intend to read many more Martin Gilbert books.

A very extensive compendium of everything that happened during the war; dates, names, places, testimonies, maps, photographs, it's all there. Objective by the most part, although it tends to antagonize the Germans, not that they weren't evil, it's just that I prefer to make that observation myself. Also, the narrative style sounds forced and stiff. We go from one event to a completely different one by means of transitions that don't allow for a smooth flow of the text. It's almost as if we were in a hurry to cover more ground, which is conflictive: if I already took it upon myself to read a 900-pages-long book, it's because I'm interested in the topic, making sure that it's well narrated, only makes for a better reading experience. Other than that, I would recommend reading for a better understanding of what happened and increased awareness of our history and where do we come from as the very generations the participants of this war sought to protect. That's why I decided to read it, and I'm glad I did.

Edit: weak transitions, that's a more exact term. 6/28/2022

Gilbert's a very able historian of WWII and his choice to follow a strict, day by day, chronological approach was obviously very conscious, but it's also a serious flaw. I think he chose it primarily to bring out details and maintain focus on Nazi atrocities large and small, and those of the German army generally, as well as those of Imperial Japan. It works, to the point where it gets tiresome for me, and that’s because it so badly interferes with coherent historical narrative. Maybe more importantly, it contributes to this preposterously subtitled “complete” history of the war having large gaps in important areas. The battles for Stalingrad and St. Petersburg, for example, are so chopped up that it’s hard to pull the disparate pieces together. But they’re nevertheless covered reasonably well; we’re never told how and when German forces got into Italy, in what numbers, formations, with what materiel, etc. The Pacific war is particularly chopped up, and you’ll have to go elsewhere to get any clarity or detail about what was happening on the east Asian mainland.

To be fair, Gilbert certainly knew the weaknesses inherent in his approach and he surely chose it knowingly. It is too easy to think of the Holocaust as an abstraction, and a sanitized one, and to use that abstraction to avoid thinking about its true horrors, about the very human depths of evil involved, and about all the other atrocities and evils that weren’t part of the plan to eliminate European Jewry. Apparently, cutting through this tendency was Gilbert’s first, second and third priority. He probably succeeded, but that precluded producing a good history of the war. For me, that’s unfortunate. The book has its place, and a valuable one, but it misrepresents itself. It probably should have let the context of the war be more of a background to the book’s primary focus, allowing the author to both focus more on the atrocities and not pretend to be presenting a solid history of the war. I wouldn’t suggest this book to anyone who hasn’t read a couple other good histories of WWII. As a footnote, it does have many very good maps, which similar books often don’t have.

Martin Gilbert é sem dúvida um dos mais importantes historiadores ingleses da actualidade, sendo a sua obra focada em História Contemporânea, principalmente da II Guerra Mundial.

Esta pequena (1008 páginas) foi para mim uma descoberta maravilhosa: foi o livro das férias de Verão de 2011 ("O livrinho", como alguém lhe chamou); a forma como o autor consegue descrever os acontecimentos é relativamente simples, sendo dado um excelente enquadramento da época, o que não deixa um leitor menos conhecedor no vazio.

Dada a extensão da obra, é claro que a abordagem não é superficial, o que faz que com este não seja um livro para todos, mas antes o "Guia Definitivo" do acontecimento que mais abalou o Séc. XX.

Resumindo: brilhante obra, com uma tradução à altura.

A monolith standing in memoriam to the everyday heroes and forgotten dead of the war.

Held back from five stars only because of its Eurocentrism.

More than 70 years after the most devastating conflict in the history of humankind, with the macabre procession of 40 million dead, it continues to be the object of study and analysis, in which rationalize such a carnage, which should not forget. In this memorialist and rationalizing effort, Martin Gilbert, famous for Winston Churchill's monumental biography, takes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to that conflict. The book, impeccably written, contains essential documentation - maps, diagrams and photographs - to see the evolution of war.

Relato bastante completo do conflito que mudou o mundo (e que ao final nos salvou de um mundo de trevas).

-Monografía, en orden estrictamente cronológico, de los principales sucesos de la Segunda Guerra Mundial-.

Género. Historia.

Lo que nos cuenta. Relato de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, desde la invasión de Polonia hasta la rendición de Japón, con un repaso de lo que el autor llama “asuntos pendientes” que nos lleva hasta la fecha original de publicación de la obra.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

Jarring in it's intersperal of fighting and the fight against the Jews.

Too horrible to remember, it demands our eternal remembrance. The detail is phenomenal yet written in a way that keeps the reader connected.

O autor fez um trabalho árduo de pesquisa, pois em mais de 900 páginas, relata os detalhes da guerra em ordem cronológica, citando nomes de pessoas, navios, cidades e operações de guerra.

Esse trabalho detalhado, que faz com que seja um livro histórico muito bom, para mim também é o seu defeito, pois por vezes acaba sendo cansativo.

Senti falta no começo de explicar mais em detalhes os motivos que iniciaram a guerra, o livro já começa logo no primeiro dia em setembro de 1939.

Logicamente que esses meus pequenos apontamentos não tiram a importância ou ferem a qualidade do livro. Aprendi muito, me surpreendi com algumas histórias e com certeza, depois de 37 dias, encerro minha leitura com mais conhecimento e ao mesmo tempo um pouco triste com a capacidade humana de destruir.