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A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume Two: 1933-1951
Volume two of Martin Gilbert's three-volume narrative history of the century charts the years 1933 to 1960. It begins as Roosevelt embarks on the New Deal and ends as Kennedy is elected to the presidency. The opening chapters cover the turmoil that proceeded World War II: the Depression, the Spanish Civil War, the Japanese aggression in China, and the relentless spread of Nazi power. WorldWar II dominates the middle section of the volume--as it dominated the lives of those who lived through the period. And in the postwar chapters, Gilbert examines the imposition of the Iron Curtain and the growth of the Cold War, the Berlin Blockade, and eventually dwarfing so much else, the nuclear confrontation. Nationalism remains a feature of this volume as it was of the last -- with the emergence of the "third world" as the European empires collapse, first in Asia and then in Africa. As in the first volume, influential art, literature, and music, as well as epidemics and natural disasters, all have their place. Many of the events described are seen through the eyes and words of those who were present. The author has combed an incredibly wide array of sources to bring to the reader a vivid picture of the life, death, patterns, and flavors of the middle part of the century.
932 pages, Hardcover
Published January 20, 1999
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About the author
Martin Gilbert
249 books417 followersThe official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, Sir Martin Gilbert was a scholar and an historian who, though his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
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Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
https://twitter.com/sirmartin36
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 15, 2023
Has a staggering scope and displays meticulous craftsmanship in the way the prose is condensed (I mean, come on, it is no small feat to talk about a year in a country in a single paragraph), but way too rigorous, almost textbook style. I skimmed through some of the pages because it is more informative than analytical or inferential. Not that it's a bad thing, but I'm not the right reader.
#6 of sxc-library-100-books-challenge
#6 of sxc-library-100-books-challenge
January 23, 2018
Although another long book in the series, it is a page-turner. The author has takes a huge subject with many different facets, and makes it quite readable. Although there simply is no explanation for why some of these events happened (man's inhumanity to man in wholesale slaughter and injustice), Lord Gilbert gives the information behind some of the decisions made by rational people to help the reader at least see why in those instances.
This was a period of time after the Communist Revolution in Russia and during which other countries were contemplating adopting the principles of Marx and Lenin to their own countries' governments. Supposedly, the rise of the Nazi party in Germany was against the Communists as well as against the capitalism of the "Jews." What I can surmise from reading this book is that the Communist Revolution in Russia became a raw grab for and hold on tyrannical power by Stalin, just as the Nazi machine became Hitler's unmistakable grasp on raw tyrannical power. These two dictators, Stalin ruling Russia (the Soviets) from the mid-1920s and Hitler ruling Germany from 1933, signed a non-aggression pact with each other but feared and deplored each other. Meanwhile, after Hitler knew he was feared as a despot (he would have thought "loved and adored" by the masses who listened to his rants) in Germany and had power over his fellow Nazis, he began to flex his might by taking over other countries. The first to go was Czechoslovakia in 1938, the next was Germany's old ally, Austria. Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands soon followed. When France fell, the world finally woke up. But Hitler wasn't finished yet. Britain was a long-term goal and he was now at war with Britain; however, all he gobbled up at the present were the Channel islands. Then, he invaded his enemy, Russia. He believed they would quickly lay down their arms and surrender; however, this was the beginning of his defeats. His men were not prepared to fight during the Soviet winters, and the Russians made sure they had the opportunity to experience it. For all the talk of Italy's Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini being a strong leader, his strength quickly evaporated during World War II, and by 1943, Hitler just took Italy.
Meanwhile, there were groups of people with whom the Nazis were at war with. They began at home, with the Jews and the weak Germans. He also saw Polish people and Gypsies as inferior. Any possible way of taking possessions and life from these peoples were used, and all Germans who wouldn't join in were sure to be targeted for severe punishment or execution as well. Similarly, Stalin had an awful vendetta against his own people as well. It didn't matter if they were loyal Communist colleagues. Millions of Soviet people were killed. Reading the accounts in this book literally shocks. It is hard to imagine the degree of insanity which would drive dictators to kill their own people while attempting to wage a world war. Martin Gilbert described the astounding lack of foresight on p. 418: "At the very moment when German Jewish refugee doctors who had reached Britain before the war were active in the medical fight to save the lives of badly injured soldiers and civilians, German Nazi doctors who had been through the same medical training in the same German medical school system were destroying life."
In Asia, the world was on fire as well, and supposedly due to Communism as well. Japan, an ally of Britain, France and the United States in World War I, had decided that China and the Communist aims of some of the people needed to be addressed in an agressive war. China was actually in its own civil war with the Nationalist people under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek fighting against Mao Tse-tung and the Communists, who were being urged on by Soviet Russia. Japan had some success in China, so got serious about aggression. The Philippines, Burma, and the United States (Pearl Harbor in Hawaii) were attacked. This finally brought the United States into the war, as soon after it declared war on Japan, it also declared war on Germany and Italy.
African and Asian colonies fought alongside their parent countries, although this sometimes added to the tension existing in colonized countries yearning to break free and become independent. Also, it brought considerable loss of life. The numbers Martin Gilbert records of lives lost worldwide, both of fighting men and innocent civilians, are staggering. It is hard to imagine anyone being left to continue living after this massive and destructive war. The war in the European front had to come to a point of sheer madness. Germany was full of Allied soldiers heading toward Berlin, and yet Hitler wanted boys and old men to defend his craziness. He got to the point of demanding that they pick up arms and defend the falling city or else get executed by the few Nazis left. Many of his own men had attempted time and again to assassinate him, but their efforts were in vain. Usually, they were executed themselves. But, finally, he took his own life. The Pacific front was another matter. Japanese fighting men and civilians had begun committing suicide rather than surrender when defeats came. The Allies were to the point that they were able to bomb Japanese targets. The Japanese people were starving. Yet, they continued. Finally, the United States turned to a new weapon, the atomic bomb. In August of 1945, a bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. No surrender came. Five days later, another bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. At this point, the Japanese finally put up the white flag.
After the War, there were survivors, people who had been starved, abused, displaced, and removed from their possessions and homes. These people needed help and the only people who could provide it were themselves coming to grips with the tremendous tragedy they had lived through. So as not to prompt any more war, the nations where reason and hope were still in the realm of possibility walked on eggshells as they picked up shreds of other nations, cities, and peoples, and began to carefully try to put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. During this time, they had to deal with scars in their own national psyche (racial prejudice in the United States, imperial dreams of Great Britain, etc.) and make some tough decisions, often incorrectly, about the way they would move forward. Also, war crimes perpetrated by German and Japanese leaders were being tried and quickly punished, often by execution.
Painfully, the British India came to be the independent countries of Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. British Palestine became a Jewish nation under the gun of Arab countries on all sides. The Communists eventually took over the Nationalists in China. French Vietnam and the peninsula of Korea became hot spots of Communism versus non-Communism. Soviet Russia quickly showed their open hostility to their former allies of World War II as they gobbled up Eastern European countries and attempted to dominate in post-war Germany. Much of the world slowly tried to regain normality, but this time with a very wary eye toward Communist aggression. Before five years had passed, armies were heading from France over to Vietnam; and from the United States to Korea.
Not only had the United Nations been formed to help world government after the war, but countries with a distrust of Communism had gathered together as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to combat Soviet power-grabs in what became described as the Cold War.
This was a period of time after the Communist Revolution in Russia and during which other countries were contemplating adopting the principles of Marx and Lenin to their own countries' governments. Supposedly, the rise of the Nazi party in Germany was against the Communists as well as against the capitalism of the "Jews." What I can surmise from reading this book is that the Communist Revolution in Russia became a raw grab for and hold on tyrannical power by Stalin, just as the Nazi machine became Hitler's unmistakable grasp on raw tyrannical power. These two dictators, Stalin ruling Russia (the Soviets) from the mid-1920s and Hitler ruling Germany from 1933, signed a non-aggression pact with each other but feared and deplored each other. Meanwhile, after Hitler knew he was feared as a despot (he would have thought "loved and adored" by the masses who listened to his rants) in Germany and had power over his fellow Nazis, he began to flex his might by taking over other countries. The first to go was Czechoslovakia in 1938, the next was Germany's old ally, Austria. Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands soon followed. When France fell, the world finally woke up. But Hitler wasn't finished yet. Britain was a long-term goal and he was now at war with Britain; however, all he gobbled up at the present were the Channel islands. Then, he invaded his enemy, Russia. He believed they would quickly lay down their arms and surrender; however, this was the beginning of his defeats. His men were not prepared to fight during the Soviet winters, and the Russians made sure they had the opportunity to experience it. For all the talk of Italy's Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini being a strong leader, his strength quickly evaporated during World War II, and by 1943, Hitler just took Italy.
Meanwhile, there were groups of people with whom the Nazis were at war with. They began at home, with the Jews and the weak Germans. He also saw Polish people and Gypsies as inferior. Any possible way of taking possessions and life from these peoples were used, and all Germans who wouldn't join in were sure to be targeted for severe punishment or execution as well. Similarly, Stalin had an awful vendetta against his own people as well. It didn't matter if they were loyal Communist colleagues. Millions of Soviet people were killed. Reading the accounts in this book literally shocks. It is hard to imagine the degree of insanity which would drive dictators to kill their own people while attempting to wage a world war. Martin Gilbert described the astounding lack of foresight on p. 418: "At the very moment when German Jewish refugee doctors who had reached Britain before the war were active in the medical fight to save the lives of badly injured soldiers and civilians, German Nazi doctors who had been through the same medical training in the same German medical school system were destroying life."
In Asia, the world was on fire as well, and supposedly due to Communism as well. Japan, an ally of Britain, France and the United States in World War I, had decided that China and the Communist aims of some of the people needed to be addressed in an agressive war. China was actually in its own civil war with the Nationalist people under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek fighting against Mao Tse-tung and the Communists, who were being urged on by Soviet Russia. Japan had some success in China, so got serious about aggression. The Philippines, Burma, and the United States (Pearl Harbor in Hawaii) were attacked. This finally brought the United States into the war, as soon after it declared war on Japan, it also declared war on Germany and Italy.
African and Asian colonies fought alongside their parent countries, although this sometimes added to the tension existing in colonized countries yearning to break free and become independent. Also, it brought considerable loss of life. The numbers Martin Gilbert records of lives lost worldwide, both of fighting men and innocent civilians, are staggering. It is hard to imagine anyone being left to continue living after this massive and destructive war. The war in the European front had to come to a point of sheer madness. Germany was full of Allied soldiers heading toward Berlin, and yet Hitler wanted boys and old men to defend his craziness. He got to the point of demanding that they pick up arms and defend the falling city or else get executed by the few Nazis left. Many of his own men had attempted time and again to assassinate him, but their efforts were in vain. Usually, they were executed themselves. But, finally, he took his own life. The Pacific front was another matter. Japanese fighting men and civilians had begun committing suicide rather than surrender when defeats came. The Allies were to the point that they were able to bomb Japanese targets. The Japanese people were starving. Yet, they continued. Finally, the United States turned to a new weapon, the atomic bomb. In August of 1945, a bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. No surrender came. Five days later, another bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. At this point, the Japanese finally put up the white flag.
After the War, there were survivors, people who had been starved, abused, displaced, and removed from their possessions and homes. These people needed help and the only people who could provide it were themselves coming to grips with the tremendous tragedy they had lived through. So as not to prompt any more war, the nations where reason and hope were still in the realm of possibility walked on eggshells as they picked up shreds of other nations, cities, and peoples, and began to carefully try to put "Humpty Dumpty" back together again. During this time, they had to deal with scars in their own national psyche (racial prejudice in the United States, imperial dreams of Great Britain, etc.) and make some tough decisions, often incorrectly, about the way they would move forward. Also, war crimes perpetrated by German and Japanese leaders were being tried and quickly punished, often by execution.
Painfully, the British India came to be the independent countries of Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. British Palestine became a Jewish nation under the gun of Arab countries on all sides. The Communists eventually took over the Nationalists in China. French Vietnam and the peninsula of Korea became hot spots of Communism versus non-Communism. Soviet Russia quickly showed their open hostility to their former allies of World War II as they gobbled up Eastern European countries and attempted to dominate in post-war Germany. Much of the world slowly tried to regain normality, but this time with a very wary eye toward Communist aggression. Before five years had passed, armies were heading from France over to Vietnam; and from the United States to Korea.
Not only had the United Nations been formed to help world government after the war, but countries with a distrust of Communism had gathered together as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to combat Soviet power-grabs in what became described as the Cold War.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2017
Gilbert wrote this quite thorough and engaging history of just 19 years from 1933 to 1951. It spans incredibly important and influential movements around the world, primarily of course WWII. It has great detail, first person accounts, and as per Gilbert many occurrences that could have and have been developed into entire books or movies (i.e. Dunkirk). I found this well worth my nearly month of commitment in reading this book.
January 8, 2025
Of necessity, this is a selective account, but with huge focus on the atrocities from China, Russia and Japan, plus of course the civilian deaths, particularly Jews.
I found myself wondering how well it helped me understand as history is written & read from a different experience than those in the middle of the events described.
I found myself wondering how well it helped me understand as history is written & read from a different experience than those in the middle of the events described.
October 15, 2008
A fairly dense historical survey of political, social, and military upheaval in the first half of the 20th Century. Heavy stuff, but full of detail and insight that I've come to appreciate.
September 19, 2018
Excellent primer on the middle portion of the 20th century. If you're looking to read a concise history of WWII and it's underpinnings this is it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews