World War II

The global conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. World War II is also known as the Second World War. It involved the majority of the world's nations, eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.

It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries.

This category includes non-fiction books as well as historical novels that are set during World War II. ...more

New Releases Tagged "World War II"

Ghosts of Sicily: The True Story of the Naval Intelligence Agents Who Courted the Mob to Fight Nazis in America and the Battlefields of Italy

The Nuremberg Women: The Untold Story of the Eight Women Who Brought the Nazis to Justice

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The Italian Daughter (The Lost Daughters, #1)

Lists

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Best War Novels

1,710 books — 1,458 voters

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Harold G. Moore

Best Modern Day Military Accounts

457 books — 625 voters

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie

The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Best Russian History Books

586 books — 419 voters

Best Non-fiction War Books

2,218 books — 2,623 voters

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Best 1940s Historical Fiction

403 books — 442 voters

Best WWII Fiction and Biography

707 books — 603 voters

World War II Books

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)

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Quotes Tagged “World War II”

“ The Japanese fought to win - it was a savage, brutal, inhumane, exhausting and dirty business. Our commanders knew that if we were to win and survive, we must be trained realistically for it whether we liked it or not. In the post-war years, the U.S. Marine Corps came in for a great deal of undeserved criticism in my opinion, from well-meaning persons who did not comprehend the magnitude of stress and horror that combat can be. The technology that developed the rifle barrel, the machine gun and ...more ”
― E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

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“ SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives; The unmentionable odour of death Offends the September night. Accurate scholarship can Unearth the whole offence From Luther until now That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz, What huge imago made A psychopathic god: I and th SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives; The unmentionable odour of death Offends the September night. Accurate scholarship can Unearth the whole offence From Luther until now That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz, What huge imago made A psychopathic god: I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About Democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; Analysed all in his book, The enlightenment driven away, The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again. Into this neutral air Where blind skyscrapers use Their full height to proclaim The strength of Collective Man, Each language pours its vain Competitive excuse: But who can live for long In an euphoric dream; Out of the mirror they stare, Imperialism's face And the international wrong. Faces along the bar Cling to their average day: The lights must never go out, The music must always play, All the conventions conspire To make this fort assume The furniture of home; Lest we should see where we are, Lost in a haunted wood, Children afraid of the night Who have never been happy or good. The windiest militant trash Important Persons shout Is not so crude as our wish: What mad Nijinsky wrote About Diaghilev Is true of the normal heart; For the error bred in the bone Of each woman and each man Craves what it cannot have, Not universal love But to be loved alone. From the conservative dark Into the ethical life The dense commuters come, Repeating their morning vow; 'I will be true to the wife, I'll concentrate more on my work,' And helpless governors wake To resume their compulsory game: Who can release them now, Who can reach the dead, Who can speak for the dumb? All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. Defenseless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages: May I, composed like them Of Eros and of dust, Beleaguered by the same Negation and despair, Show an affirming flame. ...more ”
― W.H. Auden, Another Time

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