Can someone recommend me a book that provides a comprehensive overview on the World War II?

Hi there! I'm new in this forum and super interested in knowing more about the World War II...this has always been a topic of great interest to me and I have visited related expos every time I had the chance to. The thing is that I really want to deepen my knowledge on this subject and would like to ask if any of you could tell me from where to start? I mean I need someone with comprehensive knowledge on World War II to recommend me a first book that could provide me with a good overview and from there I would be able to know which topics interest me the most - asking then for other book recommendations? Thanks to all that are reading my post and will help me find a suitable book!

 

Welcome to the forum!

To be honest a single book on the entire war would be tough.

Eagle Against the Sun is a very readable single volume on the Pacific war.

Adolf Hitler by John Toland or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer are perhaps the best single volumes on the European war. (at least for me way back when)

 

Belasar is correct that it would be difficult to find a good book that covers the entire War. You may want to break it down by Theater (i.e. Pacific, European, Mediterranean) and look for books that cover them. That is pretty much what Belasar did in his post. You may want to go to the Theaters of the Second World War section of the Forum and browse through some of the various topics and threads. We also have a section on WWII Books and Publications which would also be a good resource for recommendations and book reviews.

 

Personally i would start with WW1...this will make things/actions clearer. Then study the 5 years leading up to the outbreak..this includes the US and Japan as well as Germany and USSR...Again, everything becomes clearer when the motivations are considered. I have a WW2 Atlas...this displays all battles in chronological order...THEN you can truly study the events that took place 39-45...I know, theres alot to get through, but its ALL fascinating.

 

Regarded as one of the best single-volume histories is Gerhard L Weinberg's 'A World At Arms - A Global History Of World War II' ( Cambridge University Press 1994). This is a heavyweight book ( in both senses of the word ! ), not meant as a 'popular' history ( eg there are no photos in it)... But the Author's style is OK to read. It's genuinely comprehensive, dealing with the causes as well as major elements of the War. It is particularly good on the Eastern Front. Usefully, it also includes a bibliographical essay which points the way to further reading.

The book has been reprinted several times and is also available as a paperback, so shouldn't break the bank-balance or be too difficult to find.

 

Thanks everyone for your swift replies! I went online to check on 'A World At Arms - A Global History Of World War II' and have a feeling that could be a good start. Price is also reasonable and the reviews are promising - checking Amazon's website to purchase the book right now! Thanks, Martin! I have also visited the WWII Books & Publications topic and the recos I found were more specific...I also liked CAC's idea of starting with WWI...any book recommendation with a comprehensive approach of the WWI??

 

Thanks, Belasar! I will keep Adolf Hitler by John Toland or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer in my list! I got particularly interested in the first one...as Hitler story is quite intriguing...as well as the Holocaust to me.

 

I will check HyperWar too! Thanks!

 

Great tip! I'll start with your reco

 

You are so right. Do you have any reco on a WWI comprehensive book?

 

Perhaps not the first book I would recomend but high on the list: Wages of Destruction
It's not an easy read but every few pages I ran across one of those "aha moments" or things I just had to stop and think about. To be fair Tooze has been critisized in regards to his military analysis of the war but that's not the focus of the book by any means. Some of the older books are good as far as generalities go but off don't get the details quite right often for vary understandable reasons.

 

I should have thought of that, good catch.

 

The Guns of August; by Barbara Tuckman is probably the most comprehensive of the WW1 books, even though as the titile implies it focuses on the first month of 1914. It doesn't really stop there, but explains why and how the war became on of trenches and limited offensive success on either side.

 

Thanks! Videos can be interesting! Didn't go through my mind before...!

 

I like the idea of creating a thread on the top 10 WWII books.

 

Blood Tears and Folly..Len Deighgton...For a singular view, novelesk....IF thats a word...Big book, but its pre war introduction is quite educational, if though UK centric in the main, but good overview.

 

Again, one of the best one-volume studies is Hew Strachan's ' The First World War - A New History' first published in 2006. It's still available very cheaply as a paperback. Strachan is an acknowledged authority on WW1 and previously wrote an academic 3-volume history. This one is aimed at the general reader and has been highly praised by other historians such as John Keegan, who had written a very good 1-volume history himself.