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World War Two: A Short History
World War Two: A Short History
World War Two: A Short History
Audiobook6 hours

World War Two: A Short History

Written by Norman Stone

Narrated by Derek Perkins

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

After the unprecedented destruction of the Great War, the world longed for a lasting peace. The victors, however, valued vengeance even more than stability and demanded a massive indemnity from Germany in order to keep it from rearming. The results, as eminent historian Norman Stone describes in this authoritative history, were disastrous.In World War Two, Stone provides a remarkably concise account of the deadliest war of human history, showing how the conflict roared to life from the ashes of World War One. Adolf Hitler rode a tide of popular desperation and resentment to power in Germany, promptly making good on his promise to return the nation to its former economic and military strength. He bullied Europe into giving him his way, and in so doing backed the victors of the Great War into a corner. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany-a decision that, Stone argues, was utterly irrational. Yet Hitler had driven the world mad, and the rekindling of European hostilities soon grew to a conflagration that spread across the globe, fanned by political and racial ideologies more poisonous-and weaponry more destructive-than the world had ever seen. With commanding expertise, Stone leads listeners through the escalation, climax, and mournful denouement of this sprawling conflict.World War Two is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the twentieth century and its defining struggle.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 8, 2013
ISBN9781452680378
World War Two: A Short History
Author

Norman Stone

Norman Stone was one of Britain's greatest historians. In later life he was Professor of European History in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, having previously been a professor at the University of Oxford, lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His major works included The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 (winner of the Wolfson Prize), Europe Transformed and The Atlantic and Its Enemies. He lived in Hungary in his final years, and died in 2019.

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Reviews for World War Two

Rating: 3.6333333333333333 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

15 ratings4 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book contains some interesting perspectives on the war, but is flawed by numerous factual and chronological errors. Part of the problem may be that the entire war is covered in what amounts to an extended essay. While the brevity is a virture, in that it allows the whole war to be summarized a weekend's reading, the need to condense the narrative leads to errors of omission and simplification that are misleading to the reader attempting to understand this most complicated of struggles. I enjoyed some of the book and was annoyed by some of it. In any event I would not recommend it to the reader who was going to rely upon it as their sole source of information on World War Two.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Encapsulates the pivotal events in accurate description of an exhaustive chronicle of WWII.

    This is an excellent achievement in coverage of a global inhumane war caught in the complexity of political ideologies fighting Axis against Allied powers.

    As a condensed unabridged tome of importance for a novice of WWII history the author has taken painstaking reconstruction of battles that were waged bringing into perspective the magnitude of human sacrifice and collateral damage made that is hard to grasp in today’s era.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The title says it all, but doesn't express how well written and entertaining this book was. It's the odd additions of little known (at least to me) facts that makes the history come alive.
    Obviously the period is very quickly looked over, but it gives you a real idea of the sweep of battles and events and reasons behind the happenings of the times.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book contains some interesting perspectives on the war, but is flawed by numerous factual and chronological errors. Part of the problem may be that the entire war is covered in what amounts to an extended essay. While the brevity is a virture, in that it allows the whole war to be summarized a weekend's reading, the need to condense the narrative leads to errors of omission and simplification that are misleading to the reader attempting to understand this most complicated of struggles. I enjoyed some of the book and was annoyed by some of it. In any event I would not recommend it to the reader who was going to rely upon it as their sole source of information on World War Two.