Looking for Good Books on WWII from a fan of Antony Beevor

I am a big fan of Antony Beevor's books, and have basically read them all. I like his style because he gets involved with the political aspects and military aspects and I find he strikes a perfect balance. I find some books are almost all political based i.e. Rise and Fall of The Third Reich (although, I loved the book), while others get into too much detail about each individual small platoon and sometimes do not even provide maps to understand what they are talking about.

I heard good things about James Holland's book on the battle of britian. I am not sure how similar his style is to Beevor's. But being a big fan of Beevor, I am curious if people could direct me to other authors that write in a similar fashion. On an unrelated note, I have always found the uprising in Yugoslavia by Tito fascinating, it is not well known by non history buffs, but it is a remarkable story. If anyone knows of a good book on Tito, or any authors similar to Beevor I would appreciate it.

 

One Beevor fan suggests 'Dunkirk Spirit' by Alan Pearce, available here: Smashwords - Dunkirk Spirit - A book by Alan Pearce

Enjoy!

 

The original question was a good one which I've devoted some thought to, and maybe goes some way to explaining Beevor's best-selling success.

I'm actually having a hard time thinking of a writer who achieves the same balance. Beevor does indeed have a cool style which doesn't involve amateur dramatics, bloodthirsty descriptions or jingoism. The only other similar book which comes to mind is Keegan's 'Six Armies In Normandy' ( Beevor has acknowledged Keegan as an influence ).

There are many, many other skilled historians out there, but Beevor is IMPO the best to have successfully 'crossed over' into the mainstream book market........

 

...surprised you haven't 'voted' for Cornelius Ryan ...'A Bridge...' etc etc

 

I do indeed enjoy Ryan's books, but I'm not sure that they show the 'bigger picture' in the same way as Beevor. I always consider Ryan as an earlier, more populist version of Martin Middlebrook..........

 

Thanks for all the suggestions I am going to write these all down and put them on my list, I actually saw many ppl praise Keegan and ordered his book (the general one on WWII), I will write all these suggestions down, thank you all.

Btw is there any way to convince Beevor to write a book on the battle of Britian or about Josip Tito?

 

Unfortunately, I don't have ready access to Mr Beevor - but I got this close to him once ( at a lecture he gave on the release of D-Day in 2009 ) -

View attachment 12931

He really doesn't 'do' the air war ( or, for that matter, naval affairs ) except where they impinge on battles for territory such as Crete, Normandy, etc. He leaves biographical work to others, as well....

Still, you can contact him at his own website : -

Antony Beevor | Home

Could be worth a try !

 

...former Para officer Robert Kershaw is a specialist and general WW II author of note..

try his 'Never Surrender' - a general history of the British WWII experience

Never Surrender: Lost Voices of a Generation at War: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Kershaw: Books

 

Thanks for the suggestions just read Keegans book on WWII and I figured since it was a general history of wwII and covered most topics briefly I would not learn anything. Boy was I wrong, I learned a lot and loved his style. Very similar to Beevor in many scenes (describes battles and politics in equal balance), I am going to order equal balance.

 

Any other suggestions besides Keegan. I am almost done with six armies in Normandy?

 

Stalingrad is a good book

 

The one by Beevor? If so read it. Would love to read a good book about Operation Bagration, I have yet to see many good books on the operation or even parts of it. IMHO it is one of the most "under-rated" battles of WWII, it was decisive crush of the Wermacht but is not nearly as well known as lesser smaller battles.

 

Now, I have read most of the books by Beevor mentioned here, but I haven't seen Max Hastings mentioned at all. The last of his I devoured was Winston's War: 1940-1945. This book pulls no punches, and uses diary/memo/journal entries to tie together a wonderful tale of the politics and war planning of the man. One of the first books which shows Sir Winston as a real person, with flaws and power as well.

Not a GOD, not a megalomania driven demon either. You won't be disappointed with that read.

 

His Falklands stuff was trash though..I have problems with Hastings own ego. Personal..but isnt all reading personal?

 

Try Rick Atkinson's "An Army At Dawn".

 

Hastings is a good author, but some parts of his books are poorly written. I noticed this a lot in "Retribution" (his book on the downfall of Japan - I think he changed the title now). It would really go into the "mushy" personal details, and most of these seemed to be "created" by him -- in other words, they weren't being related from primary sources. The point of this seems to be either to emphasize a part of his thesis, or make the book "flow" better.