A War To Be Won: Fighting the Second World War

One aspect of this work that is not covered very much by other reviews is the moral tone that shines through it. As other reviewers have noted Murray and Millett have no room for moral relativism regarding the Nazi party and it's program or the complicity of the Wehrmacht in German war crimes. However, they do not gloss over the total human cost of the war both in specific battles between soldiers and the devastating impact of the war on the unarmed populations. The last couple of chapters covering the end of the war in Europe and the aftermath of the war depict a continent hollowed out by internal blood letting of unimaginable scope. They make clear both the brutal behavior of Soviet armies in Eastern Europe and the destructive effects of Allied firepower in Western Europe and combine them with the Nazi exterminations of whole classes of people to reveal in clear and precise detail the truly awful fate of an entire continent. The consideration of these topics is in some ways all the more powerful for not being much reinforced with the actual voices of such experience but being stated baldly as the facts.By comparison, M and M seem to view the violence in the Asian war between the Allies and the Japanese Empire as being somewhat more within historical precedent even if the most extreme forms of Japanese militarism were right on the edge.Most reviewers seem to focus on what they perceive to be the judgment and conclusions of M and M on specific military commanders and activities but no authors being anything other than anodyne can please everyone with such opinions no matter what level of scholarship they have brought to the party. I have a few quibbles of my own but they aren't worth sharing considering how difficult the task at hand was for the authors. I did not find the maps the most helpful I have seen. On the eastern front there seemed to be too many movements around cities which could not be found on the applicable maps. Reference to a good military atlas would be a reasonable supplement to this book. The photographs are numerous and of good quality. in keeping with the moral tone mentioned 13 of the illustrations show pictures of dead human bodies. The bibliographical section focuses on professional and archival sources and is not really a guide to reading material for the general layperson interested in the subject.One failing of this book as with most comprehensive WW2 histories is treating the war as being between two sides when there were actually four sides, the Anglo American Alliance, the Third Reich, the Japanese Empire, and the Soviet Union, with four different agendas and four largely independent prosecutions of the war.

I enjoyed reading this book, which is a bit off-putting due to its size and breadth. As long as one has a bit of time on his or her hands, this is a useful and entertaining way to spend some quality time with yourself in the company of two excellent history writers. The book has an amazing scope, and like Gerhard Weinberg's "A World At Arms" has a mammoth and daunting job at hand to describe the total scope and kaleidoscope of activities contained under the rubric of the second world war.The authors here are much more forthcoming than was Weinhard in discussing specific battlefield details of particular engagements, and this adds to the book's considerable value and readability to history buffs like myself. I enjoy their liberal employment of relevant economic, technological, geographical and other factors in describing the whos, hows, whens, wheres and whys of specific struggles as well as in describing the nature of the overall socio-political aspects of the war. So, when they subsequently launch into discussing their uniquely constructed "standards of military effectiveness", they add to its value by buttressing their findings with a wealth of different kinds of supporting data, information, and background that makes the total overview of the war much more understandable than it would be otherwise.The book does suffer from some minor drawbacks, such as the authors' obvious quarrel with the contributions and strategies of Douglas MacArthur, yet they are also suitably fastidious in pointing out his many contributions and effective tactics as well. This drawback is counterbalanced by an outstanding treatment covering the Nazi campaign against Russia, and the day to day details crammed into describing the ill-fated and terribly over-extended German occupation and troubles in Operation Barbarossa and in the subsequent crushing defeats at the hands of the Russian armies is worth the price of the book alone.In summary, I also believe their well-argued and documented take on the importance and lasting influence of the second world war is crucial in understanding all that followed in the balance of the 20th century to be well taken, and to be beyond reasonable dispute. In some respects (Such as level of detail regarding specific engagements) this is a better book than Weinberg's, and on other levels it falls short of his monumental work. Combined, the two books offer one an astounding and quite rich look at a war that we are just starting to appreciate in all of its amazing scope, ferocity, and consequence. This book should be required reading for anyone considering a career in 20th century history, or for all of us history nuts who just can't get enough of a great thing. Enjoy!

Too much concentration on the War in the Pacific. Nothing in the book that hasn't been written before. I was disappointed in this book. At best it is a student guide.

A really good book about WW2. Its in chronological order from Imperial japan invasion in 1937 to post WW2 in 1949. The authors mentions is opinion and insight on many aspect of the war as Mac Arthur was way overrated, Yamashita was the best Japaneese commander and the U boat war was a waste of material and men.

本書は、第2次世界大戦の通史である。マーレーとミレットは、今までにも、『Military Innvation in the Interwar Period』等を執筆し高い評価を得ている。本書は、それらの研究を踏まえ、ＲＭＡや戦間期の軍の変革等の最新の研究の成果を取り入れたものになっている。内容的に見ても、本文中には脚注が少なく、読みやすいものになっている。しかも、巻末に、第2次世界大戦の軍隊の編成、用兵理論、使用された兵器等に関する説明を設けており、読者の理解を助けている。このように書くと、初心者向きの概説書という感じを与えるが、参考文献欄は充実しており、この分野を深く研究しようとする人にとっても参考になる。第2次世界大戦に興味のある方に一読をお勧めする。