The Second World War

This is a single-volume history of the Second World War, drawing on up-to-date scholarship and research. As the book tells it, great power rivalry, bitter ethnic disputes after the collapse of four empires, and the ideological clash between Fascism and Communism all prepared the ground. The narrative ranges from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific. It keeps sight of ordinary men and women alongside the leaders who shaped events. This revised edition has a new foreword marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Why You Should Read?

• Learn why the book sees great power rivalry, ethnic disputes and Fascism against Communism as preparing the ground.
• Follow the war across the North Atlantic, the South Pacific, the snowbound steppe and the North African Desert.
• Meet the ordinary men and women whose lives, the book shows, were scattered by inexorable forces.
• Understand how leaders in the age of totalitarianism, according to the book, determined the course of events.

About the Author

Antony Beevor is a British historian who writes about war. He was born on 14 December 1946, and he has held visiting professor posts at Birkbeck, University of London, and at the University of Kent. He wrote Stalingrad (1998) and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (2002), two widely sold books about the fighting between the Soviet Union and Germany that look closely at the lives of ordinary people. In Russia, Berlin caused much controversy, because it used former Soviet archives to describe the mass rapes committed by the Red Army in 1945. His books have sold millions of copies and appear in many languages. He has lectured at military colleges and headquarters in Britain, the United States, Europe and Australia, and has written for major newspapers.