The Faces of World War II

by Max Hastings

Paying tribute to all who fought and died, this chronologically structured collection of photographs covers all the major events of the Second World War-from the blitzkrieg to the Battle of Britain, from the invasion of Poland to Pearl Harbor. Many of the images capture harrowing combat scenes of conflict, brutality, suffering, and slaughter, but these pictures also include poignant and uplifting scenes of civilians, nurses, and doctors fighting their own battles. Whether for those old enough to remember the events themselves, or those fortunate enough not to, this is a lasting and important document that depicts every aspect of this very modern war in images that will inform, shock, move, and engage.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Military Fiction, Photography, War

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2008

About the author

Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings, FRSL, FRHistS is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. His parents were Macdonald Hastings, a journalist and war correspondent, and Anne Scott-James, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar.

Hastings was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year.After leaving Oxford University, Max Hastings became a foreign correspondent, and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard.

Among his bestselling books Bomber Command won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize.

After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, he became editor of the Evening Standard in 1996. He has won many awards for his journalism, including Journalist of The Year and What the Papers Say Reporter of the Year for his work in the South Atlantic in 1982, and Editor of the Year in 1988.

He stood down as editor of the Evening Standard in 2001 and was knighted in 2002. His monumental work of military history, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 was published in 2005.

He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Sir Max Hastings honoured with the $100,000 2012 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

Reviews

[Ellison]

this shares images before the war, the war itself, and after the war, data and quotes. insightful, rip.

[Sam Doyel]

Overall good, despite some inaccuracies in the captions, such as pg. 183 which claims to show T-34s approaching Kursk when it's obvious that the tanks are KV-1s.

Also, the focus leans overly heavy towards Commonwealth involvement, but I guess that's not too surprising from a UK publication.

[Robert Hepple]

A selection of over 250 photographs from World War II, with the emphasis clearly on people rather than artifacts. They do mainly comprise ‘official’ photographs which also means that they can have an element of posing or propaganda in their purpose. Ironically, the few photographs (less than 10) that concentrate on artifacts such as planes or tanks, have either serious caption errors or are shown out of context in the wrong part of the war. Not a serious error, as they form an almost irrelevant part of the otherwise excellent selection.

[Sharon]

Interesting book, quite enjoyed reading it

[The F]

Some photos i had seen before, but the others were very good. The stories in it were at times graphic but it was well written and compiled. I guess i read all of it?

[Maria]

World War II photographs of soldiers and civilians from around the world. More European theaters than Pacific photos.

[Roel]

Boeiend om te weten te komen wat er achter bepaalde Iconische oorlogsfoto's schuil gaat

[Roel]

Boeiend om te weten te komen wat er achter bepaalde Iconische oorlogsfoto's schuil gaat