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The Second World War
by
John Keegan
Praised as the best military historian of our generation by Tom Clancy, John Keegan here reconsiders his masterful study of World War II, The Second World War, with a new foreword. Keegan examines each theater of the war, focusing on five crucial battles and offering new insights into the distinctive methods and motivations of modern warfare. In eloquent, perceptive anal...more
Paperback, 608 pages
Published
May 3rd 2005
by Penguin (Non-Classics)
(first published January 1st 1989)
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Usual Keegan, which is not a bad thing, but this seemed a weaker (or perhaps just more hurried?) effort than his other books. The first couple of chapters are amazing in setting a broad scope for exactly how a terrible event such as the second World War can come about in civilization. The rest was a good overview of the conflict in general. While some subjects, either ignored or poorly reviewed in other works, were covered in satisfying detail (although still brief given the overall scope of ...more
This book's a brick but Keegan gives the heavy matter readability with clear prose and the right amount of jargon for non-war buffs such as myself. It is a great, balanced, one-volume description of WWII which provides enough material for the reader to understand the events and gives plenty of ideas for further reading on the subject.
It was exactly what I was after: a comprehensive history of the war with details of the political strategies of the heavyweights and details of indicat...more
It was exactly what I was after: a comprehensive history of the war with details of the political strategies of the heavyweights and details of indicat...more
Good one-volume account of World War II, from the legacy of World War I and the rise of Hitler and Stalin, through the major battles and effects on populations, to the aftermath. Keegan starts each section describing strategic dilemmas, from Hitler's decision to invade Russia through Roosevelt/ Truman's considerations on whether to use the atom bomb. He also discusses various kinds of battle, many of which employed new forms of technology (tanks, aircraft carriers, etc.) Keegan provides scope an...more
This is a 600-page summary of the most important conflict in modern history, so it's bound to disappoint some. Iwo Jima and Okinawa are dealt with in a few pages; The Battle of the Bulge gets five. But the opening chapters describing the factors leading up to the war are an invaluable synopsis. My biggest complaint is that Keegan spends too much time on less interesting, and arguably less important theaters of war, like North Africa, and too little on topics like the Manhattan Project and the Ho...more
All right. I now know much more about WWII than I did previously. What is really interesting about this book is how unromantic it is for the most part--a lot of the rhetoric about WWII is uber-romantic, and perhaps deservedly so, but Keegan hammers home again and again (and again) that won is really won by the cold hard realities of who has the most men, the biggest guns, the best tanks (there is a LOT of writing about tanks in this book) and the best strategies. Reading about the strategies was...more
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A good military history of the war that concentrates on different aspects than Martin Gilbert's book of the same name (for interest, the detail in Keegan's book about the paratroopers landing on Crete was far superior than the two paragraphs devoted to the same subject in Gilbert's book). Still, the Holocaust is barely mentioned, and the individual stories are kept to a bare minimum.
I usually find the biographical side of history books dull (I admit to "skimming" the lat...more
I usually find the biographical side of history books dull (I admit to "skimming" the lat...more
World War II from 20,000 feet.
The bulk of popular WWII histories are written with a narrow scope. Memoirs or other you-are-there narratives are the usual means of describing a particular battle or campaign. And no wonder - a full accounting of a single battle would easily overwhelm your average mass-market hardcover.
I've read roomfuls of such books and it wasn't until I read Keegan that I appreciated what I'd missed: the overall story of the war. Reading excellent books ...more
The bulk of popular WWII histories are written with a narrow scope. Memoirs or other you-are-there narratives are the usual means of describing a particular battle or campaign. And no wonder - a full accounting of a single battle would easily overwhelm your average mass-market hardcover.
I've read roomfuls of such books and it wasn't until I read Keegan that I appreciated what I'd missed: the overall story of the war. Reading excellent books ...more
This is an excellent one volume telling of the Second World War, within its historical context, with a heavy emphasis on the strategic questions and decisions faced by the political and military high commands of the five major powers (Keegan doesn't consider Italy a major power). A long-time instructor at Sandhurst in Britain, Keegan brings to this work an ability to link the conflict within the historical flow of Europe and modern Asia, going as far back as time of Charlemagne, but especially e...more
John Keegan is a much better historian than this book would suggest. It seemed to me as if it had been thrown together in a weekend to catch the 50th anniversary of WW II celebration and sales bonanza. It is a tired rehash of every bit of conventional wisdom and popular legend about the war, many of which have been discarded by the historical community for decades. It's disheartening that Keegan didn't notice that.
Extremely detailed history of WWII that dives into the strategic and tactical moves made during the war, so much so that it is somewhat difficult to read at times. Does a decent job of explaining how the war came about and that it was basically an extension of WWI.
How can that topic me covered in one book? It cannot. Keegan grinds out a very very thin outline. A decent novice read for someone beginning to show some interest it that era. For the serious student of WWII this would be a waste of time and shelf space
Good strategic overview of the entire war. It also has a good opening chapter covering the events leading up to the war including the changes in European civilization that helped make both World Wars possible.
The author has a good writing style and he isn't afraid to stretch an overview book to 600 pages because that is what is needed. I spotted a few mistakes but overall it's pretty darn good.
The author has a good writing style and he isn't afraid to stretch an overview book to 600 pages because that is what is needed. I spotted a few mistakes but overall it's pretty darn good.
an excellent reference book on such a complicated subject such as this greatest conflict the world has ever known, again written in a concise and prefessional manner like no other can....
A tightly written history of the 1935-1945 War. If you wished to read a WWII history, this book is the most accurately condensed version I've read.
If you´re only going to read one book about WWII, this is it.
Very good overview of the entire conflict.
Same caliber as his history of World War 1.
A good primer on World War Two.
It's a long book and the outcome has no suspense but the backstory is still compelling. A very authoritative history of a compelling time.
This book was awesome! Really well written and very informative. I never in my life thought I would want to read a book about WWII, in the past the subject bored me to death..this book completely changed the way I look at military history altogether. I'm actually excited to read more about the events surrounding WWII.
A magisterial work. The only thing I would have liked from the book was more discussion of the Battle of the Atlantic, but otherwise I have no complaints. The framing of the book as a series of strategic dilemmas for the major leaders is a simple but effective way of bringing order to a notoriously complex period in history. I can tell why this book made Keegan's career, and it's considerably better than his history of the First World War.
Very solid, if sometimes too dry, overview of World War II. Focuses on military planning and strategy of the major combatants, with some analysis of the political and social contexts of the war.
I read this just after "The First World War" by the same author. Again, the research and detail were unbelievable. I found the account of the events leading up to the war and the aftermath of the war to be most interesting. The account of the war itself was the meat of the book, and at times was a little too heavy on battle details. At times I found it hard to wade through certain sections, but it was well worth it.
An intelligent, one-volume look at the Second World War, divided into the early years of the war from 1939 to mid' 1943, when the Allies managed to turn the tide in every theater, and the later years from 1943 to the war's end, and addressing three primary theaters of war; The War in the East, The War in the West, and The War in the Pacific.
Great reference book, however I don't think I could ever get through from front to back. I like the strategic dilemma intros.
Superb large picture analysis of WW2 punctuated, as per Keegan's style, with precise detail and jarring anecdotes. Not as mature as WW1 but the chapters on Okinawa and the Eastern Front are as gripping as any history I've read. The Okinawa chapter turned a life long cynic into a believer in the choice of using the atomic bomb.
An excellent and very readable analysis of the second world war. This is the first of John Keegan's books which I have read. I found it easy to follow, informative and concise. A shame, really, that modern classrooms tend to eschew this book for newer, but less well-written, texts.
John Keegan is one of the finest military historians of our time, and in The Second World War he does the unthinkable: he provides a picture-perfect, concise history of WWII. This is an essential reference book on the topic, and one of the only textbooks to have on the matter.
NC
NC
Phew, finally finished this monster! An amazing overview of WWII. I like that Keegan shows the strategies, mistakes, and victories from all sides of the conflict. He also never minimizes the human cost of all of those years of war. I learned a ton from this book.
Again after reading Keegan's "History of Warfare", I realized I didn't know a lot about WWII. I still can't say I know a whole lot more. But it was interesting to read about the forces that brought about the war, and its terrible consequences.
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Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan OBE is a British military historian, lecturer and journalist. He has published many works on the nature of combat between the 14th and 21st centuries concerning land, air, maritime and intelligence warfare as well as the psychology of battle.
-Wikipedia
More about John Keegan...
-Wikipedia
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