“ Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on fear of war, but on the love of peace. It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind. In this sense the most insignificant writer can serve peace, where the most powerful tribunals can do nothing. ”
--Herman Wouk


The “Winds of War” is the grandiose epic of the Henrys, an American naval family disrupted by World War II. Through the Henry family (or their lovers or friends), we trot the globe from before the German invas More...

The Winds of War is the first of a 2 part series comprised of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. This book was impossible to put down. The story of the lead-up to WWII told primarily through the lens of the American Henry family, The Winds of War gives a comprehensive background on the military and political situation in a much more engaging way than a non-fiction book could. It also paints a broader picture by looking at the situation on the ground in both Europe as well as America. Desp More...

Huge, compelling read. Though I may hesitate to call the book "informative", I'd probably feel more comfortable describing it as "edifying", particularly regarding the range of viewpoints on various players' roles and motives in the war. It contains plenteous opinions about martial tactics (particularly Germany's) and the effects of politics (particularly the US's) on the outcomes in WWII. Opinions or not, it was broadening to see unconventional views stated so thoroughly and convincingly. I was More...

This is the first book to read, followed by War and Remembrance. I was a baby when WWII broke out and my Dad was a sailor who went to New Guinea. I wanted to know more about it than can be found in an ordinary history book. The author was true to facts and places, fleshing out the events with believable characters. I loved reading these two books for their facts and for the pure pleasure of reading really good books. I had visited Normandie in France, Poland, two of the death camps, Pearl Harbor More...

Describes the changes in the lives of an American family caught up in WWII. The story is fiction, though heavily based on historical events. It has a well develped plot and provides an abundance of historical background so that the characters can be placed acurately in the overall war story. Much of the background is provided as a fictional journal from one of Hitler's inner circle which is divided and placed throughout the book to allow you to follow the progress of the war along with the progr More...

One of the best historical fiction novels of World War Two, this epic story describes the Henry family, headed by Victor "Pug" Henry, a Captain in the U.S. Navy, as it spreads across the globe during World War Two. Wouk knits the personal stories of the Henry clan together with factual history, using letters, quotes from speeches & books, anything he can think of to put you there, smack dab in the middle of the action. And you are there: you follow Pug to meetings with Roosevelt, Hitler, Chu More...

One of my favorite historical fiction reads of all time. The story follows the Henry family across the globe during World War II. Pug Henry a Commander in the Navy is posted around the world by FDR to bring back a unique feet on the ground perspective of the war. He meets Hitler and Stalin on diplomatic missions and a number of adventures accompany these travels. His two sons one a naval reservist and the other a naval aviator and their wives filled in the rest of the war from a number of perspe More...

I wasn't sure that I'd enjoy reading this behemoth of a novel. I thought it was probably too much straight history, and I tend to prefer more strictly narrative writing. But Wouk turns out to be a great, vivid storyteller as he skillfully weaves the triumphs and failings of a memorable cast of characters through the world's history of 1939 to 1941, from Germany's invasion of Poland to Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The protagonist, Victor "Pug" Henry is a man's man, a Navy officer who through More...

Had I not known the book's genre I would taken for granted the book to be non-fiction, how dumb isn't...The mix of real and fictitious character works the real charm...The familys of Jastrows and Henrys all bring out their own strong point based up on their own cultural difference making a point clear that, out cultural background can blind or help us see certain in a way that might be for good or for bad...I loved Natalie Jastrow for her strong will and the determination to get things through h More...

This is the first of two books recounting the story of an American family during the period just prior to and then throughout the Second World War. If we could take the real history away from it altogether, a compelling fictional drama would still remain. To mix this invented family saga in with that of the war, means that we have a novel of another order altogether.

In this first novel, we are taken inside Hitler's Berlin and allowed to see the inner workings of the regime, as experienced by Vic More...

The Winds of War, by Herman Wouk, Narrated by Kevin Pariseau, produced by audible inc. and downloaded from audible.com.

This narrative,and the second book,War and Remembrance, take us totally through, from before it started to the very end, WW II. The central figures are the Henry family, Victor Henry, a navy captain who spends time in various policy-making offices because he is liked by President Roosevelt; his wife, Rhoda, who has lived almost 30 years as a navy wife shut out of the main events More...

This is perhaps the best introduction of WW2 that anyone can have.

In an engrossing story, readers are taken through the key decisions that shaped WW2 until the Pearl Harbour attack. Through private interactions of the protagonist that involves Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill, Musolini and even Stalin, the story details events and thoughts that shaped the war.

The other protagonists were well scattered to experience what was happening on the ground because of these leaders' egos, biases and ambition More...

This sprawling epic follows a group of fictional characters - a family - through a painstakingly researched recreation of the events leading up to the Second World War, in Winds of War, the first volume, and up through the end of the war in the second volume, War and Remembrance. The historical sequence, the actions of world leaders, and the events of the war are detailed and factual, but the main characters and their places in those events are fictional. It's a brilliant device to bring the his More...

I read this quite some time ago, and have read it at least three times since. This was my first book by Wouk to read. I love his style. I love all the research he went into to write this. As a would-be author, the thought of how much research he had to do left me wondering whether I should take the plunge to be a writer.

Wouk weaves a great tale of the Henry family and how they interacted with World War 2. This book begins early in 1939, when Victor "Pug" Henry become US Naval attache in Berlin. More...

This novel brought the reality of World War Two alive to one who was born five years after it ended. I discussed this book with many in my family who lived through the experience who also read it and the supported my feeling. The TV movies made later about the two books were not close in impact to the books themselves. This book especially captured the denial of so many people that their own fate and that of those they loved was sealed after the invasion of Poland. Especially for Americans, it w More...

I first read this book after seeing the 1983 (?) mini-series. I do this a lot -- see things in the movies or on TV and then read the book. It helps me understand things that were skipped over or could not be explained as fully on film.
Anyway, I highly recommend to anyone who is remotely interested in WWII to read The Winds of War and of course, War and Remembrance, its sequel. You come to really care about the Henry and Jastrow families and what happens to them.
Had there not been a sequel I wo More...

Solid historical fiction.

My dad brought up this book in conversation again and again, so I finally decided to give it a read. It centers around a navy family, the Henrys, during the build-up to America's participation in WW2. With the father working as a naval atache and then in war plans, he visits Berlin, London, and Moscow at crucial historical moments. One son follows the love of his life in Italy and Poland. The other son is an aviator stationed in Pearl Harbor. Essentially, there is a Henr More...

There is always a tension in historical fiction. Make the book too historical, and you might as well man-up, append some footnotes, and make it nonfiction. Make the book too fictional, and you end up in a situation where the relatively trivial problems of the characters overshadow the bigger problems of history. I call this latter phenomenon the Kate Beckinsale Corollary, after the infamous scene in the movie Pearl Harbor where she utters the lines: "Rafe, I'm pregnant. I didn't even know until More...

I don't normally like this sort of thing: timeless soap-opera melodrama carried out in front of a storyboard of great historical events. At first glance, the Henrys seem stereotypes: a crusty old warrior nursing his honor and booze, plucky adventurous young women, a disobedient and directionless son, a shallow materialistic housewife.

But the author works these hackneyed pulp golems into detailed, complex people whose fates matter. Even the loathsome ones. Two really outstanding descriptive passa More...

One of my favorite books. This takes place in a pre World War II world. I have read deeply into the history of WWII and in my view although fiction it is actually closer to the truth and most history books. This shows the human side of the war, all of the personal hardships, persecutions, betrayals, all ties into actual persons and events. It gives a great analysis of all the world leaders of that time and shows all the political dealings that leads to the untimate crisis. Still the characters a More...

If you want to learn more about WWII this is a great book to add to your list. It follows the Henrys, a naval family all over the globe. Also includes a Jewish American family, the Jastrows (including some of their European relatives) who end up connected to the Henry's by marriage.

This is the first part of a saga which includes "War & Remembrance." This book is mostly about the war from the European experience before US involvement & deals with the Isolationist policy of the US. It end More...

When I read "The Caine Mutiny", I felt I had read Wouk's best. I still feel that way, but to compare these two books is to compare horses and zebras. There is some similarity--after all each has a navy flair to it. "....Mutiny" focuses primarily on the Navy though, whereas "The Winds...." is about the world events leading to WWII. Germany invades Poland, Germany overruns France, Germany fights Russia and England, the USA tries to stay out of the war, ..... Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know all that happ More...

I've just finished reading The winds of war for the second time, about 25 years after reading it the first time. I had never thought that I would re-read it -- it just seemed too long. It was not that I hadn't enjoyed reading it, but it seemed that once in a lifetime was enough.

And then my wife bought the DVDs of the TV series based on the book, and we began watching it.

In the first episode I was struck by the trouble that had gone into making it. It was not all shot on location, of course, and More...

"The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" seemed like they'd be perfect for me--after all, Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny" is one my favorite books, and World War II is one of my favorite wars. (A messed up sentiment, I know, but the sheer scope of the action and the magnitude of the horrors make it endlessly compelling.) Surely, I figured, if such a talented author, who had so clearly hit the mark with his earlier shot at a smaller piece of it, turned his considerable literary artillery tow More...

“The Winds of War” is a bona fide 5 STAR book if there ever was one!

It is the Gold Standard of historical fiction of World War II.

This book takes the reader on a sweeping historical journey from events leading up America’s involvement in the war. Our protagonist, US Naval Captain Victor "Pug" Henry, has a large adult extended family which is spread out across the globe and this allows Wouk to deal with pre-war Nazi Germany, the blitzkrieg of Poland, the Battle of Britain, Italy, Stalin in Russi More...

I first read Winds of War in the 80's when they made an epic mini series out of it. I fell in love with series and actually have the entire series and watch it once a year. (I think it's like 22 videos...yet VHS it's that old) I read the book again in 2007.

Herman Wouk does a fantastic job of bringing the reader in to events leading up to the war.

Victor (Pug) Henry is a naval officer and is being sent to German in the late 1930's to be a naval attache. The story surrounds his family. His wife Rh More...

Winds of War is book one in a two book series. It deals with the years just prior of World War II and the Nazi rise to acceptance, then dominance in pre-war Germany.

I've been a WWII buff since a young age, watching every WWII movie made and reading most books. Not sure why it took me so long to discover this book. From my experience with this book, I would judge it to be the finest WWII novel I have ever read.

Wouk has masterfully written an epic. It is both sweeping in content and delicious in c More...

The saga of sagas. Here's what defines The Winds of War (and also War and Remembrance) for me:

1) Many lengthy novels with this many characters, each with their own subplots that mix into the larger story, are difficult to follow. Not The Winds of War. There's no difficulty context-switching among the stories of Pug, Rhoda, Byron, Jastrow, and the others.

2) Many novels that blend real-life characters from history into the story do so awkwardly, and describing one to someone else might sound like More...

This book tells World War II in a different light: how the great world war changed lives -- especially of Victor Henry, a US Navy commander. The struggle of his wife, Rhoda, to remain loyal to their marriage. His son Warren's life as a carrier pilot. His son Byron's and his wife Natalie Jastrow's attempts to get her Uncle Aaron out of Italy.

I also like the fact that the author was able to put Victor Henry and his family's life in sync with the wartime events: Fall of Poland, German Invasions of More...

Pug Henry is a great character... and though Wouk does his best to make everything Pug gets to do seem plausible... but he is still a super-character that would have been broken into multiple viewpoint characters by a modern author (not that there aren't a lot of other compelling characters both real and imagined in the book!) Once you get past that (and Wouk's less than stellar writing of male/female relationships) you have an amazingly detailed look into the attitudes and actions in America an More...