The War, 1939-1945

by Desmond Flowers, James Reeves

This magnificent, chronologically ordered, internationally focused collection covers every phase and theater of World War II. Based on diaries, letters, journals, reportage, and other contemporary documents, The War, 1939–1945 resurrects the voices of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Goebbels, Rommel, Yamamoto, MacArthur, Patton, Eisenhower, and other prominent figures as well as the experiences of countless ordinary soldiers and civilians from Germany to Japan, from England to the Soviet Union, from Norway to Africa. The editors have chosen the finest, most revealing writing from all sides of the conflict to forge a sweeping yet intimate chronicle of the most cataclysmic event in history.

Genres: History

1144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Mike Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've actually got a second-hand copy of the two-volume 1967 Panther edition. But in any case, this is a monumental, and extraordinarily powerful, work: an anthology of contemporary accounts, from every walk of life, of World War II. We have speeches, letters and other writing by Churchill and Hitler, and then stories from everyone else: soldiers, airmen, sailors, medics - all the way to civilian men and women. Few are longer than a few pages, many are scraps and fragments. Together, they create a phenomenally vivid picture of the experience of war, across the globe.

Just been reading one man's account of being caught in a London bomb-blast and then joining the effort to dig a woman and her child - who it turns out has died - out of the collapsed house next door. A tiny, heart-rending story that would probably be lost and forgotten by now, if it wasn't for this amazing and important book.