This is the first one-volume history of World War II that I’d really place in a category of reevaluation by an author who views the war from a comfortable distance in time, but then I’m not expert, not even, really, an amateur aficionado even though I’ve read a lot about the war, including biographies of the personalities and memoirs by the participants.

Roberts’ thesis is that the Allies did not so much win the war as Hitler lost it, in large part by making independent judgments based on intuiti More...

The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts is an outstanding look at the Second World War. Examining the Second World War from its global perspective, Roberts brings his experience and historical judgments to reflect in an unusual and very thoughtful manner on the war from an economic, political, cultural and military perspective. This is a book that is definitely worth reading. A number of misconceptions and long-standing acceptable myths about the war are exploded. One of these has to do with the gene More...

Someday, someone will write a great one volume history of the Second World War. But it won't be Andrew Roberts.

The book is all right when it comes to the European/African theaters, though Roberts does indulge in Anglo-American triumphalism. But when he turns to the Pacific, the triumphalism turns to Eurocentricism and piss-poor research. Although his narrative of the European conflict begins before the war with the Anschluss, dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and "Peace for our time," he begins hi More...

This book is a fairly comprehensive (610 pages) history of World War II trying to make some new interpretations and make use of some more recent archival materials. It is a quick read and engaging, even if you already have read a lot about WWII.

What I liked the most about this book was that the author takes a clear perspective - namely that Germany (Hitler) largely lost the war because of several egregious errors (invading USSR, declaring war on the US, etc.) and this had these mistakes been avo More...

OK, it's 600 pages, but geez, it's WW II. Come on, people; did you think it could be shorter? Actually, this could easily be the best one volume account of the war ever written. It somehow manages to combine an intelligent look at all the strategic coups and mistakes of the war, and still layer in many fascinating anecdotes and specificities that I guarantee you've never seen anywhere else. Plus, it reads like a novel, and even though you know what's coming, you look forward to the new insights More...

Roberts has produced a powerful piece of military history writing. Taking on a one-volume history of WWII, on of the most studied and written-about periods in the history of the 20th century was no small or easy task.

Robert's book, "The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War" is a retrospective work that considers and takes into account what happened between 1939 in Europe and 1941 in the Pacific and the end of the war in both theaters of operation in 1945. The retrospective approa More...

While the book isn't an entirely comprehensive telling of World War II, it manages to serve as an excellent crash course in World War II history.

Presenting the conflict in an almost narrative fashion, the book uses first hand accounts and somewhat prosaic terms to present the war in a way that makes Allied country heroic, especially the British Commonwealth countries like Canada and New Zealand. The Axis soldiers are generally presented as noble as well, although their leaders are thoroughly bas More...

I want to read Winston Churchill's six-volume history of World War II, and before doing that, decided to go through a modern British one-volume popular book on the subject. This is a rather conventional history book; the author is a British patriot who berates Eire for being neutral in the war, since had Hitler won, he would have trampled this neutrality. It makes gross mistakes having to do with the Soviet Union. A million and a half former Soviet POWs were sent to the Gulag or labor battalions More...

This is a magisterial (i.e. very thick) history of the war. It lacks the originality of Norman Davies' "Europe at War" and the analytical bite of Richard Overy's "Why the Allies Won." Indeed Roberts' conclusion - that Hitler lost for the same reason that he began the war: "he was a Nazi" - is not particularly original nor profoundly illuminating. His treatment of Bomber Command seems a little over-keen to exculpate him. While rightly condemning the "armchair strategists" (shouldn't he have calle More...

I've ready many a book about World War II, and this is one of the best. Andrew Roberts has written a an overview of the conflict that is general enough to keep focus and yet specific in a way that enhances the narrative. Good historians are in my opinion good storytellers, and Roberts more than qualifies in this regard. He explained some of the minutia of the Battle of Midway so skillfully that I was able to use to it predict how a decision made by Admiral Nagumo doomed his part of the Japanese More...

This was my first single-volume history of WWII, and while the magnitude of the topic left little opportunity for great detail, I found it mesmerizing – a quick but informative read. Roberts focuses more heavily on the European war, and I find myself wondering if the battles, tactics and logistics of the Pacific war just didn’t provide enough material to gain equal weight with those in Europe. Or does Roberts simply feel it is self-evident, as he seems to conclude in his epilogue, that Japanese More...

An incredibly well-researched and brisk history of the battles of World War II that illustrates how personalities impacted the outcome as much as planning.

The author argues that World War II was one of the first wars waged for political reasons, rather than military ones, and that this was ultimately what caused the Germans to lose. The book itself covers all the campaigns from beginning to end and offers a staggering amount of detailed figures of the troops and arms involved.

The strategies of t More...

The Second World War is a seemingly vast and endless subject (at least considering the number of books written on the subject). Writing a single volume that adequately covers one of human history's greatest tragedies seems a difficult if not impossible undertaking. Andrew Roberts has proved that he is certainly up to the task.

"Storm of War" is a well written survey of World War II. Mr. Roberts excels at shining the spotlight on aspects of the conflict that do not normally get attention such as t More...

Without a doubt this is a detailed and very comprehensive account of THE single most world-shaping event in the last 200 years. While portions of Roberts account are dry due to the inclusion of troop numbers, leader names, tonnage built or delivered or destroyed the pay off is that there is SO much to learn that it feels good to have read about it.

I learned so much about the war that I'll no longer feel overwhelmed by any conversation that I'm a part of. I've read this book and for that I'm gra More...

This book was fabulous, but really long (as my vast reading time illustrates; I also broke up the reading of it with some fiction, just because, yeah, long). It seemed like there were lots of sentences that went like this: And then Hitler made the most costly decision of the war. And then Hitler made his biggest mistake of the war. And then Hitler made a tactical error that might have cost him the war.

But you know, that's a WWII book! Seriously, though, so good. So interesting. (I may have skipp More...

What "The Storm of War" does, it does fairly well. The book covers the war, at least the European part of it, comprehensively, although too breezily in places. It points out that while all of the members of the Grand Alliance made valuable contributions, the Soviet Union did the bulk of the fighting and the dying. Andrew Roberts points out that the Axis powers did or failed to do certain things that might have prolonged the war or even created a different outcome. He lays to rest certain myths, More...

From "Britain's finest military historian" (The Economist) comes a magisterial new history of World War II and the flawed axis strategy that led to their defeat.

The Second World War lasted for 2,174 days, cost $1.5 trillion, and claimed the lives of more than 50 million people. What were the factors that affected the war's outcome? Why did the Axis lose? And could they, with a different strategy, have won? Andrew Roberts's acclaimed new history has been hailed as the finest single-volume account More...

You would think by now that it would not be possible to write a history of World War II and offer anything new, interesting or relevant… but you would be wrong! Roberts has accomplished exactly that, but with one very large and important caveat. This book would more properly be titled a History of the British, Russian and German War – and within that field of inquiry, it is superb! Roberts brings in a lot of previously unrevealed documentation, diaries, recorded conversations and similar new, re More...

Although it was a slow start, this book was actually more readable than I anticipated, so it wasn't as tough as Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945. It's a single volume history of the entire second World War, so it has a lot more ground to cover. It accomplishes the task by focusing on certain areas and time ranges, and discusses the author's opinion of a few post-WWII questions (was Allied bombing of German cities effective? Could the Allies have ended the war in Europe earlier by la More...

I was interested in reading this book, because I knew from reviews that it touched upon the various fronts of WWII--North Africa and Asia, as well as eastern and western Europe--and though I've read a bit about the war in the past, virtually all of that reading was focused on Europe, and in particular on the rise and fall of the Third Reich. So, although the war in Asia gets very short shrift, THE STORM OF WAR did open up the vista for me--from Singapore to Sicily to Scandinavia.

There were a fe More...

For a single volume history of WWII, I really didn't think it was very well done or contained new information. It focuses nearly exclusively on the European conflict and doesn't deal much at all with the causes of the war. I much prefer A Short History of World War II by James L. Stokesbury when it comes to single volume histories of WWII. Stokesbury spends much more time discussing the causes of the war, which is more interesting to me, as well as at least trying to cover some of the subtopics More...

Every year there are another dozen books about World War II, with maybe one or two worth reading. The Storm of War is a new history, as the subtitle points out, and with large numbers of government records, oral histories, and private papers being released all the time a "new" history can bring a good deal of evidence to back up a new interpretation. Andrew Roberts' book does just that.

Another thing his book does is to put the emphasis on the eastern front that it deserves. I tend to read about More...

I won this book through First Reads about 2 months ago and steadily kept up with reading it even though that meant juggling multiple books at once. Not something I like to do.

Since I'm American, these are the things I was made aware of in public school regarding WWII: Pearl Harbor, D Day, Hitler is bad, Auschwitz, Anne Frank & A Bomb. I had never taken the time or effort to learn more about the war in my free time but am generally a fan of reading history books in order to learn. By nature o More...

I received a copy of this book through the goodreads first read program, and it was sent to me at no charge.

Great book. One of the few that will look at WW2 from the German perspective, and analyze the decisions of Hitler fairly rationally. Roberts calls it like it is, that HItler was a military idiot, but a brilliant statesman, albeit a monster.

The major premise was that Hitler and Germany did more to lose the war than the allies did to win it. Hitler's treatment of his top generals and strateg More...

I have had an interest in military history since I was a schoolboy, in particular The Boer War and WWII. I have therefore read a book or two about both conflicts.

This "new history" of WWII is by far one of the best that I have read in a long time. It is extremely well written. Many history books can be an excellent cure for insomnia, but this one is in a league of it's own for keeping the reader involved. It is also extremely well researched with copious references and page notes (the main text More...

I received a copy of THE STORM OF WAR: A NEW HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Andrew Riberts, from GoodReads and Harper. I love history, so I was excited to learn more about World War II. The book, of 712 pages, contains three parts: the Onslaught, the Climacteric, and the Retribution. There are also maps, notes, a bibliography, and a conclusion.

The book is very informative. Even though it is not fictionalized, it reads smoothly. I highly recommend this book to other history buffs.
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This book has moments of good insight and analysis but in the end I was disappointed. The author sets out to cover the entirety of the War, but barely touches on the Pacific. The focus is overwhelmingly on Hitler's conduct of the war and how his mistakes led to an Axis defeat. If Roberts had narrowed his scope to stay on this topic he would have been better off. The Pacific chapters, such as they are, feel like a tacked-on afterthought.

The conclusion is questionable as well, and even Roberts hi More...

Roberts has written a very readable history of the Second World War. He includes some quotes from documents he says have not been used before, useful for example in pinning down Hitler's intentions. I got to page 167 before I stopped reading. Nothing wrong with the book, its just that I've read a good deal about the war before and there doesn't seem to me much new for people to write about it. The book has decent maps covering all theaters near the beginning and a lengthy bibliography.

Excellent, accessible book with wide coverage yet surprisingly frequent insights about events, people, issues, etc. Assumes some familiarity with WW II terminology that can occasionally become challenging as the terms accumulate over the course of the book (would be helped by a glossary). Does a good job of analyzing not just how the war was lost by the Nazis, but why. Also covers the major controversies arising from WW II and explaining, albeit briefly, the author's persuasive views.

This book was actually kinda good! In this book the author talks a lot about how Germany saw every decision they made and why they thought Hitlers choices were wise. The main premise was about how Hitler and Germany at lot of things that lead to their own defeat. Hitler treated his top generals very badly , and his war strategies were horrible! He would kill any one who spoke,acted or even thought against him.If one of his generals ever acted without his permission, or without consulting him wou More...