Antony Beevor : 'The Second World War'

Many of the 'heavy hitters' ( Hastings, Burleigh etc ) seem to be turning their hand to single-volume WWII histories/overviews, and now it seems Antony Beevor's book is due on the shelves today : -

The Second World War: Amazon.co.uk: Antony Beevor: Books

It has been reviewed very favourably by fellow-historian Norman Stone in this months' Literary Review ( apparently Beevor is highly critical of the Bombing Campaign ).

Anyhow, I'm certainly a fan of Beevor's style and shall be watching out for a copy.......

 

You're right Martin, we're really spoiled for choice at the moment. I recently read Beevor's book on D-Day and thought it excellent, I also thought Masters and Commanders by Andrew Roberts was equally good. With the two of them, plus Max Hastings, with one-volume histories out, it's tough to choose between them. If only I could read a bit faster ...

 

The Beevor book has now had a whole raft of favourable reviews in the National Press. As a confirmed 'fan', I'll have to get a copy......

 

I've had this book on order for a couple of months through my library. I'm now first in line. It should be in my hands shortly but not in time for my next vacation.

 

The reappearance of this thread has reminded me - I still haven't got a copy !

Some of the 'lower' Amazon reviews are quite amusing ; depending on which one you read Beevor gives too much / too little credit to Stalin and devotes too much / not enough space to the Eastern Front........

 

I am afraid I have a low opinion of Beevor because his Normandy book is full of mistakes. If you know the detail of the events he describes these errors are glaring. It is also quite obvious that he has a 'thing' about Montgomery because no chance is missed to comment on his errors. Some of the books used as references are long in the tooth and have dated badly. One example of many: Deste's claim (Decision In Normandy 1983) of 100,000 British soldiers were being hidden in the UK (to help preserve the Empire post war) is repeated despite it being comprehensively refuted by Hart in 'Colossal Cracks' as far back as 2000. The D Day book should be considered a 'general primer' and not something you should rely on for operation al detail.
I suspect many who comment favourably on his Eastern front books are not in a position to know if his facts are correct and are seduced by his style. I prefer substance!