by Max Hastings
First published 2011
Max Hastings examines World War II as both a global conflict and a deeply human tragedy. The war consumed sixty million lives at a rate of twenty-seven thousand deaths daily. Hastings draws on thirty-five years of research to present the complete story in a single volume. He follows ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances: British housewives adapting to wartime rationing, Indian peasants facing starvation, SS officers carrying out mass murder, and Leningrad citizens surviving a brutal two-year siege. The author weaves together major strategic decisions with personal stories. He shows Hitler's fatal refusal to withdraw from the Soviet Union, Stalin's willingness to sacrifice enormous numbers of Soviet soldiers to exhaust German forces, Churchill's resolve during Britain's darkest period, and Roosevelt's careful leadership before and after America joined the fighting. Hastings also covers lesser-known aspects of the war, including Finland's fierce resistance against Soviet invasion and the Bengal famine that killed over one million people between 1943 and 1944. The book connects grand strategy with individual experience to show how the war transformed the world.
Genres: history, 20th-century, world-war-ii, non-fiction, military-history
Vibes: emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: grand-strategy, personal-stories
Setting: Soviet Union, Britain, Leningrad, Finland, Bengal
Period: World War II
748 pages · Paperback · Harper Collins Ome
Content warnings: death, violence, war