Third in my quest for a good one-volume history of WWII, Stokesbury's entry is a mediocre and inconsistent entry. And he totally ignores the interesting questions of the war, like: what was the Nazi goal? or, how could Japan and Germany have cooperated more? or, why did the Holocaust happen?

Plodding and dull.

A well-written, concise history of World War II, beginning with the events leading up to it and some of the consequences after its end.

Highly recommended for anyone who's ever wanted a bit more in-depth look at the entire World War II without delving too much into specifics.

Read it a long time ago, but I think I found it informative. (Date read is a guesss).

The perfect book for someone who realizes they don't really know what-happened-when in World War II. Well-organized, well-written, Stokesbury starts with the background causes and focuses on the basic political and military events of all the theaters of war. If I started my study of WWII over, I would read this first since it's a complete primer on the war. Then I would read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and the Churchill series (which I've stopped after two). And if I started this book again, I would get a few good maps to go alongside. He has a few hand-drawn maps of his own but they aren't even indexed in the back.

This is a great read. Stokesbury has a creative touch to writing history. I liked all the military statistics for the various theaters and battles. It is very informative. I'm going to read his work on World War i. If you want a good feel for all that occurred during World War ii, with an objective perspective, read this.

Straightforward, even-handed, mostly military history. Clocking in at about 400 pages, it provides a good background on the war.

Good level of details. Loved reading about the leaders of all the countries involved; good decisions, bad decisions, etc. Learned a lot, about the war and also about leadership.

This book is a very readable overview of World War II. It helped fill in the gaps in my understanding, and it was well worth the time it took to read.

Easy read. Great way to learn about history and he kept me interested.

This is a good introduction and overview of World War II, useful for review purposes or as a place to start your exploration of this period of history.

Summarizing a subject as immense as WWII into 400 pages requires careful choices about what to include, and for the most part Stokesbury makes good ones (though inevitably no one will agree with all of them). His narratives are tight and succinct, though maybe too much so. His analytic history, however, is excellent and summarizes complex topics informatively with great insight. An excellent single-volume summary.

A good summary of WW2