World War Two: a Short History PDF
Preview World War Two: a Short History
history stone (continued from front flap) $25.00 US / $28.00 CAN Stone leads readers through the escalation, climax, and PrAiSE For NorMAN StoNE’S W W o r L D mournful denouement of this sprawling conflict. WorLD War one Brisk yet profound, World War Two is an after the unprecedented destruction of the Great o invaluable contribution to our understanding of the War, the world longed for a lasting peace. the twentieth century and its defining struggle. r W a r t W o victors, however, valued vengeance even more “Smooth, efficient and highly readable…. Stone manages to hold the reader’s attention until the last than stability and demanded a massive indemnity from L page. his book is full of fascinating asides for those who thought that European history could hold no Germany in order to keep it from rearming. the results, more surprises.” —Wall Street Journal D as eminent historian Norman Stone describes in this A Short hiStory authoritative history, were disastrous. “only a virtuoso could, in the space of a long essay, cover the fighting on all its fronts and still find room for in World War Two, Stone provides a remarkably high politics, trenchant comment and colorful detail.” —Financial timeS, Book of the year W concise account of the deadliest war of human history, showing how the conflict roared to life from the ashes “Cogent and pungent…. [Stone] has a marvelous eye for detail.” —the Guardian (London) a of World War one. Adolf hitler rode a tide of popular desperation and resentment to power in Germany, r “Stone offers what few British historians can: the view from elsewhere, a sense of what the war looked like promptly making good on his promise to return the outside the Western Front.” —independent (London) nation to its former economic and military strength. he bullied Europe into giving him his way, and in so norman stone t 5-5/8 x 8-1/2” has taught “[A] briskly written, highly argumentative history that summarizes the problems and the people involved in doing backed the victors of the Great War into a corner. S: 13/16” at the universities of Cambridge, oxford, and Bilkent, them in a headlong dash through the period…. Breathtaking.” —neWark Star-ledGer W Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and B: 9/16” where he is currently director of the turkish-russian France declared war on Germany—a decision that, BASIC HC Center. Author of The Atlantic and Its Enemies, World “A special pleasure—a concise, pithy mix of fact and judgment.” —dallaS morninG neWS o Stone argues, was utterly irrational. yet hitler had 4/COLOR War One, and the Wolfson Prize-winning The Eastern driven the world mad, and the rekindling of European Front, 1914-1917, Stone lives in oxford and istanbul. hostilities soon grew to a conflagration that spread across FINISH: $25.00 US / $28.00 CAN norman the globe, fanned by political and racial ideologies more Gritty Matte ISBN 978-0-465-01372-2 poisonous—and weaponry more destructive—than Jacket design by Nicole Caputo 52500 stone Jacket photograph © Dmitri Baltermants / A Member of the Perseus Books Group the world had ever seen. With commanding expertise, the Dmitri Baltermants Collection / Corbis www.basicbooks.com (continued on back flap) 12/12 9 780465 013722 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page i WORLD WAR TWO 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page ii ALSO BY NORMAN STONE The Atlantic and Its Enemies World War One The Eastern Front, 1914–1917 Europe Transformed Turkey: A Short History 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page iii NORMAN STONE WORLD WAR TWO A Short History A Member of the Perseus Books Group New York 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page iv Copyright © 2012 by Norman Stone Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permis- sion except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107. Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other orga- nizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Depart- ment at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected]. Typeset in 10-point Sabon LT Std by the Perseus Books Group A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-0-465-01372-2 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page v Contents List of Illustrations vii List of Maps ix Introduction xi Chapter One: Between the Wars 1 Chapter Two: Germany Ascendant 25 Chapter Three: Barbarossa 47 Chapter Four: Pearl Harbor and North Africa 71 Chapter Five: The Russian Turn-Around 93 Chapter Six: Fanaticism and Hate, 113 Muddle and Delay Chapter Seven: Nazism and Communism 133 Chapter Eight: West and East 151 Chapter Nine: The End 173 Aftermath 189 Acknowledgements 207 Some Sources 209 Index 215 v 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page vi 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page vii List of Illustrations Georges Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, and 1 David Lloyd George after signing the Treaty of Versailles, June 1919 German soldiers marching past the Arc de 25 Triomphe, June 1940 Citizens of Lwów cheering the arrival of German 47 troops, July 1941 New Zealand troops in the Western Desert, 71 December 1941 Friedrich von Paulus after surrendering at 93 Stalingrad, February 1943 US Navy Dauntless dive-bombers during the 113 Battle of Midway, June 1942 Jews being rounded up in the Warsaw Ghetto, 133 sometime in 1943 American troops en route to Normandy, 151 June 1944 Soviet troops putting up flags on the remnants 173 of the statue on the Brandenburg Gate, 1945 vii 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page viii 9780465013722_text_stone 10/22/12 9:28 AM Page ix List of Maps 1. Political Boundaries in 1923 202 2. The Nazi Empire at Its Maximum Extent, 204 Autumn 1942 3. World War Two in Asia and the 206 Pacific, 1941–45 ix
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