The books I turn to when I research a place: the best five to eight on every topic, from the general histories of the war to the war at sea. I have read most of them, and the short notes are my own.
Chosen and annotated byMaxim Chornyi
6 books
1953, 4,736 pages
This monumental work, a Nobel Prize winner, though written soon after the end of the War, is still relevant and gripping to read. It’s the only first-hand account among the great players of WWII, which provides insight into the diplomacy between the Allies. It is, of course, the history of the war mainly from the British perspective, which gives details to all related to England, lacking details in a wider sense of global warfare.
1994, 1,178 pages
This monumental work from the 1990s is less known and rarely recommended than other mainstream one-volume global histories of the Second World War, but it presents a fundamental, very readable, though long and exhaustive, reading. A 1.5 kg hardcover edition provides 900 pages of research and 300 pages of appendices, covering all theaters of war and different angles, apart from a battle map, like economy, production, nationalism, social impact, key figures, and the Holocaust.
2009, 768 pages
Being a very readable one-volume book, Roberts’s work is a good choice for beginners in the topic. The author does good in using an extensive number of sources, including those of his contemporaries, provides a lot of statistics and figures, and suggests evaluations of the key historical characters. At the same time, it strongly relies on the predecessors and, in fact, has not so much ‘new history’ compared to what we have already known from other books.
2011, 729 pages
The author masterfully balances the political, social, and military-strategic topics on a grand scale and multiplies first-person stories, particularly people from above. It is worth noting that Hastings does the historical narration, often expressing his own evaluations of the events and historical figures, which, along with witnesses' testimonies, turn the book into much more emotional reading than some other cold-minded analogs.
2012, 863 pages
Though lacking a gripping novelistic depth in a way similar to any single-volume WW2 history, it performs well with the overall picture. Throughout fifty chapters, the history goes almost chronologically, switching between the theaters of war, particularly giving enough detail to the War in the Pacific, Atlantic, Northern Africa, and the Mediterranean, apart from the focus on mainland Europe. It is reasonable that this is one of the best books by Beevor.
2017, 720 pages
The author tried to give the classic story that everyone knows a broader perspective through the wars of the past, though taking a closer look, the book does not provide anything conceptually new. What we have is indeed a very readable history of WWII, good enough for both hardened readers and for the newcomers, but you should not expect a brand-new perspective, revolutionary approach, or revisionist view.
4 books
1960, 1,280 pages
Six decades since its first edition, Shirer’s two-volume history is probably the best introducer into the history of the Third Reich and WWII. Though there are modern successors with profound access to archives and documents, this classic is very readable and involving, which can be compared to reading a novel. Apart from masterful work with the sources of his times, Shirer provides characterization and summing up of persons and events.
1998, 448 pages
Initially a companion to a BBC TV documentary series, this book is one of the most readable and engaging works of research on Nazi Germany. It focuses on three large topics: the coming of Hitler and the creation of the Third Reich, the War in the East between 1941 and 1945, and the Holocaust and other genocides. As the author Lawrence Rees himself states in the preface, this is not an analysis of military campaigns or strategic decisions but an attempt to delve into the essence of Nazism. While those who witnessed that period were still alive in the 1990s, the author—drawing on their accounts and the perspective gained over the intervening decades—seeks to derive lessons from the history of the Third Reich, the ideological conflict in Europe, and the nature of totalitarianism as a social phenomenon. This is not a dry collection of immutable, encyclopedic facts, but a compelling monograph intended for a broad readership.
2000, 992 pages
Michael Burleigh’s writing style is definitely not an easy one, especially for the newcomers, but he repays this sometimes challenging readability with a gripping depth of his study. It is not a classic book about life in Nazi Germany but a more nuanced study of how a modern European nation came first to euthanasia, the Holocaust, and the killing of millions of its citizens and of its enemies. Here the term 'a new history' is definitely justified. and the book serves as an excellent companion to other profound Third Reich and Holocaust-related books.
2009, 2,489 pages
Each of the three volumes takes its own periodic respectively, yet the whole trilogy is strictly logical and follows the same key points. Evans does an excellent job with all merits of war archives, first- and second-hand sources, and recollections. It is a less enjoyable, more academic read than Shirer’s work, yet Evans provides a profound analysis of the political, socio-cultural, military, religious issues. The basic advice is to make an interval between the three books.
6 books
1952, 848 pages
Bullock’s work was a pathfinder and the first bestselling Hitler’s biography. Toward the revised 1962 edition, it obtained all previously revealed documents and most of the post-war memoirs among Germans, gained a balanced view over Hitler, and is still very readable and authoritative in most issues, as the author strongly preferred documented facts rather than unreliable assumptions. The process of reading is entraining at a steady pace from the first chapters and through the second half devoted to WWII.
1973, 864 pages
An academic masterpiece and the first comprehensive reconsidering of Hitler’s personality in the socio-cultural context by a respected scholar. On the one hand, Fest sums up the bulk of facts about the dictator, which were accessible in the early 70s, though he followed some cliches. On the other, Fest gives a wider picture of Hitler as a phenomenon of German and European history in social, political, military, historical aspects, particularly in the opening volume one.
1976, 1,036 pages
John Toland’s notable work, like Joachim Fest's biography, was also a product of 1970s historiography. Many witnesses were still alive, and the book draws on more than 200 interviews, along with established sources and the work of predecessors like Heiden, Bullock, and Jetzinger. Toland’s book possesses incredible readability and ease of narration: you read it almost like a novel with principal characters and the historical background of WWII. It sometimes lacks depth in military and economic aspects and uses debunked myths about Hitler, like him taking French POWs or having a Jewish grandfather, but the overall impression is sincerely positive.
2000, 2,080 pages
Kershaw’s two-volume work is an established classic among biographies and military history. The author did an amazing job of cross-examining the sources about Hitler, particularly the myths and yellow-page assumptions of the past decades. Any chapter may be taken as a roadmap for subsequent research, though the only limitation is its academic dryness and the lack of narrative depth, which directly affects the reader’s involvement.
2018, 1,856 pages
Ullrich is a gifted journalist, and his two-volume work is much more readable than Kershaw’s dry one with all benefits. He takes advantage of the enormous amount of published sources and research, avoids established cliches and myths, and suggests a very balanced biography of Hitler as both tyrant and a living being. The dividing line between the two volumes is the start of WWII, and each is equally gripping. Summing up, Ullrich’s work is evidently the best among biographies of Hitler up to date.
2019, 1,344 pages
Similar to his other monumental biographies of top Nazis (Goebells and Himmler), Peter Longerich’s writing style is generally demanding and not intended for entry-level readers. He masterfully works with both primary and secondary sources, and two decades after Kershaw’s research, the book still has much more to add to our understanding of Hitler. Longerich not only retells Hitler’s life story but also offers his own authoritative analysis.
1 book
1996, 496 pages
Born in Germany, Brigitte Hamann lived in Vienna for half a century and wrote several books about well-known Austrians (Empress Elizabeth and Winifred Wagner), including a masterful ‘Hitlers Wien’. The author spent years working with original documents and records, meticulously reviewing all available works devoted to Hitler’s early years. But this book is something more than just the most detailed account of the dictator’s 1906-1913 years for two reasons. First, she also covered his family history and childhood with great detail. Second, she gives the reader a broad picture of the city's political, social, racial, religious, and economic background at the turn of the XX century. Hamann created a particularized picture of what events, political parties, newspapers, theater productions, and people surrounded Adolf Hitler in his first twenty-four years of life until he moved to Munich. The book is well-written, highly readable and absorbing, and any new work focused on Hitler’s formative years would still feel reliant on this work.
6 books
1965, 522 pages
Penetrating writing about the war effort in the East as far as was possible in the mid-60s with the closed Soviet archives and strong reliance on Western historiography and secondary sources. In contrast to Werth’s ‘Russia at War,' Clark’s work is a more balanced approach, as he treated Stalin’s regime as another dictatorship. The book starts with the interwar period and proceeds chronologically, with events and figures, up to 1945 and a little further. The appendix section has roadmap information for better understanding.
1966, 1,247 pages
The author had been an №3 official in the propaganda machine in Nazi Germany and a provocative debating figure as a military historian. Though both volumes selectively give no mention of the war crimes and the Holocaust, it is still one of the most readable German accounts of the war in the East when it comes to the mastery of narration. He expertly combines the situational first-hand accounts in the field with the meta-analysis of German and Soviet strategy, setbacks, and wins.
1995, 432 pages
None of such a book list would be complete without David Glantz, and this book is probably his finest. He is one of the most respected Eastern Front historians, but he put too much reliance on the Soviet archives and thus rendered himself a lot of debate errors. Glantz's style is also too bookish and academically dry for the general WWII readers and should be taken as an additional reading rather than the sole source of the information. He gives a good account of the battles and focuses on the Red Army's military evolution.
1999, 225 pages
The book is neither a comprehensive history of the Eastern front (due to the volume) nor a chronological day-by-day account. Rees is a masterful page-turning narrator, and he focuses on the nature and background (historical, political, dictator’s personal) of the war effort between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR, the key figures. His meta-analysis of the events, the motives of the ‘main characters’ on both sides, and between-the-line explanations make the book an excellent and still relevant introducer to the topic.
2005, 480 pages
The author conducted important and relevant research by telling the personal stories of the Stalin-era soldiers and civilians, leaving behind the propaganda images, decades of silence, and war novels. She took great advantage of both opened archives (letters, reports, interrogations, and unaltered accounts) and the 200 interviews with the elderly veterans, putting together a balanced, insightful picture. At the same time, it flows like compelling historical research with a nuanced multi-level analysis and conclusions beyond the bare testimonies.
2010, 524 pages
It is not a pure history of the war in the East from 1941 to 1945, yet the timeline starting from 1914 with an accent on Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and Poland, provides a more compelling (than usual) background history. Snyder goes deeply into the crimes of Stalin’s regime and the Nazi war of extermination, including the Holocaust. The book is based on an extensive number of sources, predominantly historical second-hand studies of the recent twenty years. Snyder’s narration is remarkably readable and historically uncut.
3 books
1955, 320 pages
Joachim Wieder (1912-1992) was an intelligence officer in a unit of the notorious 6th Army who lived through the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet captivity, and published his book in West Germany in 1955, with a second part added in 1962. This documentary account is filled with both factual details—providing insight into the entire period of encirclement across various sectors of the front—and the personal emotions and experiences stemming from what the author directly witnessed and heard. The second part provides an analysis of the actions taken by three high-ranking German Wehrmacht officers who were directly involved in decision-making during the situation in Stalingrad: Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, and General of the Artillery Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach. The methodology of Wieder’s analysis is based both on personal recollections and on an examination of written records, documents, and statements by these generals.
1973, 457 pages
William Craig's book is a broad, highly detailed historical account of the entire Battle of Stalingrad, from the start of Barbarossa to the outcome of the 6th Army’s surrender in February 1943 and beyond. And yes, the 2001 movie of the same name borrowed the story of the Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev from here, but the book is a far more nuanced work. It took Craig four years of research to put together all available sources at that time, including archives and documents, and the bibliographic section in the end is really impressive for a book published in the early 1970s. His style is light; the characters are lively, and the narration has a good balance between the overall strategy and commanders and common soldiers on both sides. An absolute must-have on the WW2 bookshelf.
1998, 494 pages
On Goodreads, this book has as many votes and reviews as all other existing books about Stalingrad combined, and it is, in fact, a very readable modern assessment of the fateful battle. Antony Beevor devoted around a hundred pages to the period after the June 1941 invasion and before Wehrmacht units reached the outskirts of the city. Step by step, he explains the key stages and turning points to the reader while shedding light on the personalities of various state and military figures and the timeline of the battle. Beevor also touches on the fate of the local population, the war crimes, the role of collaborators, the anti-Jewish measures, the outcome of the battle, and the fate of the German prisoners of war, both its commanders and common soldiers. It is not a definitive history of the 1942-1943 Battle of Stalingrad but a readable and involving historical research for a wide audience.
4 books
1941, 627 pages
It is neither a global history of the war effort on the Western front nor the coverage of the whole period up to 1945. Shirer’s early bestseller is a masterpiece of personal recollections, which would later become the basis for ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' by the same author. He suggests an insightful perspective of the US journalist for the years of the rise of the Nazis in Germany, the Poland campaign, and a gripping first-hand account of the fall of France in 1940, including Shirer’s presence in Compiegne during the armistice.
1950, 224 pages
Though this book was published on the heels of WWII, with the restricted resources, it is an insightful journey into the German perspective, particularly in North Africa and Western Europe. Westphal was an experienced Chief of Staff behind Rommel, Kesselring, and Rundstedt, and his judgment of his superiors is resourceful. The first chapters go chronologically with the interwar years, a rebirth of the army, commanders, and Hitler’s leadership. Westphal was an advocate of the ‘clean Wehrmacht’ image.
2013, 2,374 pages
Goes incredibly detailed with the three strategic chapters of the Allied invasion. Northern Africa October 1942-May 1943, Italian campaign July 1943-June 1944, from D-Day in 1944 to the end of War. Atkinson did a good job in combining the achievements of the historians, highly relating to secondary sources, with trusted analysis and cross-examined figures. The trilogy is a bit dry in reading and too much chronologically, yet worth reading if you want to get more information on particularly theater of war in the West.
2017, 1,444 pages
J. Holland considers himself a revisionist historian, yet he takes advantage of the predecessors, thus one more time reconsiders the post-war cliches, and retells freshly the war effort on the Western Front. The two published volumes cover the 1939-1941 and 1941-1943 periods, respectively, with a balance between the behind-the-curtain diplomacy, strategic and operational successes of both sides, analysis of the weapons, and first-person accounts. Holland devotes much time to the ‘logistics of war,' especially the German.
4 books
1959, 350 pages
A time-proved WWII classic, a starting point for anyone interested in D-Day. Ryan collected 1000 accounts from Germans, British, Americans, and French, with relatively fresh recollections, including generals Taylor, Bradley, Gale, Smith, Halder, Blumentritt, and Speidel. The book is divided into three sections (Wait/Night/Day), and the narration is close to a gripping novel, deepening into the story of the invasion on the different levels, from the soldier on the Omaha beach to Eisenhower and Rommel.
1994, 656 pages
A modern, sophisticatedly detailed, and extended successor to Ryan’s work. Paying the first 200 pages to an analysis of the sides, commanders, strategy, planning, and weapon and combat experience, the book proceeds with a very readable and well-proved account of June 6, with a balance between the big picture and the eye-to-eye fighting. He missed no important issues, debunked some cliches, and revealed never published first-person accounts, all with a reevaluation of the battlefield on D-Day, its setbacks, and outcomes.
2009, 591 pages
Unlike the previous two books, Beevor outwalks D-Day and moves the timeline forward up to the liberation of Paris in late August, leaving four chapters for the preparation, six to June 6, and the remaining twenty to a further broader picture. The book is the most readable on this list, yet it lacks authoritativeness and academic depth in some parts when the author prefers to work with emotions and touchy matters rather than with cross-examined facts. Anyway, it gives an excellent overall picture of the Allied invasion of France in 1944.
2019, 1,025 pages
A recently published book, which has all the means to become a classic. Caddick-Adams did superb work in getting into the detail of every previously studied issue. In the PREPARATION section (21 chapters) he gave a chapter on all major elements, including the weather forecast. The INVASION retold in-depth the June 5-7 events, locations, names, and figures with regard to the recent historical findings and research since Ambrose. It is not so readable and more academic, yet it is a comprehensive history of D-Day.
4 books
1961, 1,385 pages
The 1985 revised edition is evidently the best overall history of the Holocaust by the most respected scholar on the topic. Hilberg suggested a comprehensive multi-level analysis of the original documents, first-hand testimonies, post-war trials, the topography of the locations, the role of the key perpetrators, and the anatomy of the killing process. Hilberg reevaluated the whole understanding of the ‘Final solution’ and his work is still relevant and appraised as a must-have reference among the new generation of historians.
2003, 616 pages
The book may sound too academic and suits well experienced readers of the Holocaust-related literature with a piece of background knowledge. It gives the most detailed understanding of the concentration-deportation-killing evolution between the outbreak of WWII in 1939 and Spring 1942 and the operation of the production-scale killing centers. Browning follows Hilberg’s 'cumulative radicalization' approach, rather than the raw post-war ‘intentional’ understanding of the Holocaust.
2015, 1,056 pages
A brilliant scholarly work, which follows the chronological narration from the Middle Ages' anti-Semitism to the mass killings by the Nazis. Cesarani provides a very detailed picture by not missing a single country, important event, or personality, with a bulk of established figures of the death toll, reexamined in the XXI century by the most respected scholars. The book thus combines all the post-war and recent findings, documents, and debunked myths and may serve as a roadmap for further detailing into any of the topics.
2017, 512 pages
Apart from creating one excellent BBC documentary, Rees is a very talented historian and writer who has shaped his literature's brilliancy since the late 90s. The book provides a deep understanding of the chronological rise of antisemitism and genocide in Europe, culminating with the Holocaust. A readable, gripping story with a balance between the humans’ stories and a deep understanding of the killing process. Considering the size and involvement, they are probably the best introducer to the topic.
2 books
1945, 275 pages
This first-person account reads like a horror story, but the author only told her wartime experience, particularly her stay at the women's section of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. She adds so many gripping details to her narration, like the agony of the dying people in the local quarantine barracks, the suffering of starvation, or the violence unleashed by kapos and Nazi guards. Her book is hard to read, but it exists to make us remember.
1966, 478 pages
Anatoly Kuznetsov was only twelve when the Germans occupied Kyiv. While the book includes the author’s personal childhood experience and that of his family, it is a non-fiction study of the Babyn Yar massacre and the occupation of Kyiv between 1941 and 1943, collected piece by piece from available documents and eyewitness accounts, despite merciless Soviet censorship. The uncut version presents a powerful anti-war narration, which unmasks both Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s russia and their crimes on Ukrainian soil.
2 books
1969, 696 pages
Calling this book ‘a definite one-volume study of Nuremberg’ is an exaggeration; I personally gave it only three stars on Goodreads, but it provides a balanced overall picture of the trials with a focus on the German defendants. While doctors like Gustav Gilbert and Leon Goldenson worked mostly with their personalities and self-consciousness, Eugene Davidson portrayed their roles in the Nazi hierarchy and provided a detailed account of the 1945-1946 Nuremberg trials, the behind-the-scenes circumstances, and the court proceedings. He divided all Nazi defendants into groups: theorists, diplomats, economists, lawmen, propagandists, and others, and used meticulous documents and stenograms to recreate an overall picture twenty-five years after the events.
2004, 528 pages
Doctor Leon Goldensohn’s book saw the light only in 2004 and is not as well-known as the work of Gustav Gilbert. Major worked in Nuremberg for seven months between January and July, and his notes are valuable because of his methodical approach: he insisted on taking detailed stenographic records, so his interviews with Nazi criminals are precise. Goldensohn insisted that the defendants not attempt to express themselves in English but rather speak in German so that nothing would be missed. He was more interested in the personal aspect of his subjects: childhood and family, personal life and marriage, their self-identification in the Nazi regime, and, among other defendants, proximity to Hitler, their thoughts on communism and the future of Germany and Europe. The book is easy to read and is a good initial point on the topic of the Nuremberg trials.
3 books
1964, 250 pages
Manvell and Fraenkel's mutual works were always aimed at a wide audience, a mass reader, thus an easy-to-follow, yet not a comprehensive in-depth study of neither the German Resistance nor the July 20 plot. It is a good, readable, guiding work of modest volume with three main sections: a) THE CONSPIRATORS b) JULY 20 c) BLOODY ASSIZES, which do a good job of presenting the key characters and events regarding the assassinations attempts against Hitler, with an accent on Claus von Stauffenberg and the 1944 army plot.
1994, 442 pages
With certainty, this is the most compelling work about Claus Von Stauffenberg, his brothers, wife, and children. Hoffmann had unprecedented access to the family and the archives, which led him to draw a living yet comprehensively detailed history. Yes, a little bit academically dry, but it is insightful to understand the man, his surroundings, and his actions. As the author is also an established specialist in German resistance, this part of the book, including the July 20 plot, is also one of the best written among historians.
2008, 320 pages
The most balanced book on the list regarding the history of the Resistance, Stauffenberg, and the history of the July 20 plot. It follows chronologically through Stauffenberg’s life, with thorough attention to detail, by correlating with German history, the rise of the Nazis, and WWII up to the plot itself. The author took great advantage of his academic predecessors and thus cross-examined some debatable or cliche-like assumptions, whilst preserving a broadly based admiration toward the main character.
3 books
1954, 426 pages
Ruge was not only a high-ranking Navy officer during and after WWII but also a good military historian. He starts with an introduction to the War at Sea, thinking about the interwar period, and follows through with all major navy campaigns and battles participated in by Germany under Raeder and Donitz. By being a top-rank participant, the author suggests evaluations of the wins and setbacks (Norway, Malta, North Africa, Battle for Atlantic, and Mediterranean) and explanations of the issues generally too specific for the wide audience. Ruge’s claims and takeaways are mostly well-argued and far from self-justification.
1960, 480 pages
As the leading naval historian in the United States after WWII, Potter had profound access to the archives and to commanding officers still alive: the latter provided corrections and suggestions to the text. The book is a well-written provider of the overall understanding of the war at sea before and during WWII in every theater of operation, though it lacks depth and in-depth history conclusions. It misses no important issues or battles in the Atlantic, Pacific, or Mediterranean, except that they are told too compactly and superficially.
2018, 770 pages
Professor Symonds is a distinguished maritime historian, and at present, this book is the best one-volume history of WWII at sea. The narration is fluent, with a lot of details and explanations for non-professionals, with evaluations of the ships, men in command, and battles. A separate section deals with the European theater of war prior to Pearl Harbor, and the larger part of the book gives a thorough overall picture of the war at sea and its impact on transport and combat in WWII in general for Germany, Italy, Britain, the USA, and Japan.
