GLOBAL HISTORY OF WWII

WINSTON CHURCHILL	THE SECOND WORLD WAR	Published: 1953	Number of pages: 4736	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 with England, lacking details in a wider sense of global warfare.
MAX HASTINGS	ALL HELL LET LOOSE: THE WORLD AT WAR 1939-1945	Published: 2011	Number of pages: 729	The author masterfully balances the political, social, military-strategic topics on a grand scale and multiply of 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, that some other cold-minded analogs.
ANTONY BEEVOR	THE SECOND WORLD WAR	Published: 2012	Number of pages: 863	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, Nothern Africa, and the Mediterranean, apart from the focus on mainland Europe. It is reasonable, that this is one of the best books by Beevor.
ANDREW ROBERTS	THE STORM OF WAR: A NEW HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR	Published: 2009	Number of pages: 768	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 of his contemporaries, provides a lot of statistics and figures, 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.

HISTORY OF THE THIRD REICH

WILLIAM SHIRER	THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH	Published: 1960	Number of pages: 1280	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 to persons and events.
RICHARD EVANS	THIRD REICH TRILOGY	Published: 2009	Number of pages: 2489	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, 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.
THOMAS CHILDERS	THE THIRD REICH: A HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY	Published: 2017	Number of pages: 651	A representative of recent scholarly history, Childers’ book is a relatively small one-volume history. Yes, it lacks depth in the number of details, yet the book misses no important issues and covers well every conventional element regarding the Third Reich. Insights into Hitler’s biography and decision-making, the high-ranking nazi leaders, seizure of power and NSDAP structure, reshaping of the German society, the Holocaust, the war effort.
FRANK MCDONOUGH	THE HITLER YEARS	Published: 2020	Number of pages: 1152	Frank McDonough has been a less known, yet very respected and fruitful British historian of Nazi Germany since the late 90s. This recent two-volume work is not a comprehensive history of Hitler’s rise to power and reign as the narration begins on January 1, 1933, yet it covers the twelve years of Nazi Germany, the restructuring and mobilization of the society, the War. Every chapter goes with one year and its main events and personalities, chronologically. Similar to Shirer, it is a good choice for the newcomers.

BIOGRAPHIES OF ADOLF HITLER

ALAN BULLOCK	HITLER: A STUDY IN TYRANNY	Published: 1952	Number of pages: 848	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 German, 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.
JOACHIM FEST	HITLER	Published: 1973	Number of pages: 864	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 summs 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.
IAN KERSHAW	HITLER: 1889-1945	Published: 2000	Number of pages: 2080	Kershaw’s two-volume work is an established classic among the 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.
VOLKER ULLRICH	HITLER: 1889-1945	Published: 2018	Number of pages: 1856	Ulrich 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, Ulrich’s work is evidently the best among biographies of Hitler up to date.

HISTORY OF THE HOLOCAUST

RAUL HILBERG	THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EUROPEAN JEWS	Published: 1961	Number of pages: 1385	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, 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.
LAURENCE REES	HOLOCAUST: A NEW HISTORY	Published: 2017	Number of pages: 512	Apart from creating one excellent BBC documentary, Rees is a very talented historian and writer, who has shaped his literature 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, probably the best introducer to the topic.
C. BROWNING	THE ORIGINS OF THE FINAL SOLUTION 1939-1942	Published: 2003	Number of pages: 616	The book may sound too academic and suits well to 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.
DAVID CESARANI	FINAL SOLUTION: THE FATE OF THE JEWS 1939-1945	Published: 2015	Number of pages: 1056	A brilliant scholarly, which follows the chronological narration from the middle-ages anti-semitism to the mass killings by the Nazis. Cesarini provides a very detailed picture by not missing a single country, important event, 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, debunked myths and may serve as a roadmap for further detailing into any of the topics.

THE WAR IN THE WEST

WILLIAM SHIRER	BERLIN DIARY: THE JOURNAL OF A FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT 1934-1941	Published: 1941	Number of pages: 627	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 insight 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.
SIEGFRIED WESTPHAL	THE GERMAN ARMY IN THE WEST	Published: 1950	Number of pages: 224	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, Rundstedt and his judgment of his superiors is resourceful. The first chapters go chronologically with the interwar years, a rebirth of the army, commanders, Hitler’s leadership. Westphal was an advocate of the ‘clean Wehrmacht’ image.
JAMES HOLLAND	THE WAR IN THE WEST 1939-1943	Published: 2017	Number of pages: 1444	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 curtain diplomacy, strategic and operational successes of both sides, analysis of the weapons, first-person accounts. Holland devotes much time to the ‘logistics of war’, especially the German.
RICK ATKINSON	THE LIBERATION TRILOGY	Published: 2013	Number of pages: 2374	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.

THE EASTERN FRONT

LAURENCE REES	WAR OF THE CENTURY: WHEN HITLER FOUGHT STALIN	Published: 1999	Number of pages: 225	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.
ALAN CLARK	BARBAROSSA: THE RUSSIAN-GERMAN CONFLICT 1941-1945	Published: 1965	Number of pages: 522	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 inter-war period and proceeds chronologically, with events and figures, up to 1945 and a little further. The appendix section has road-map information for better understanding.
PAUL CARELL	HITLER’S WAR ON RUSSIA 1941-1944	Published: 1966	Number of pages: 1247	The author had been an №3 official in the propaganda machine in Nazi Germany and a debating provocative 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.
CATHERINE MERRIDALE	IVAN’S WAR: LIFE AND DEATH IN THE RED ARMY, 1949-1945	Published: 2005	Number of pages: 480	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, 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.
TIMOTHY SNYDER	BLOODLANDS: EUROPE BETWEEN HITLER AND STALIN	Published: 2010	Number of pages: 524	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, 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.
DAVID STAHEL	OPERATION BARBAROSSA AND GERMANY'S DEFEAT IN THE EAST	Published: 2009	Number of pages: 500	Stahel is a skillful historian of the new era, an author of a series of compelling books on the Eastern front, and a successor of David Glantz. ‘Barbarossa’ is the first book in the series and a good revaluation of the old-established cliches dealing with the onset of the War in the East in 1941. The research particularly focuses on 1) Strategic plans and theoretical conceptions for war between Germany and the Soviet Union; 2) The period between June 22 and late August 1941 and the takeaways for the whole War.
DAVID M. GLANZ	WHEN TITANS CLASHED: HOW THE RED ARMY STOPPED HITLER	Published: 1995	Number of pages: 432	None of such a book list would be complete without David Glatz, 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.

D-DAY / OVERLORD 1944

CORNELIUS RYAN	THE LONGEST DAY	Published: 1959	Number of pages: 350	A time-proved WWII classic, a starting point for anyone interested in D-Day. Ryan collected 1000 accounts from German, British, US, 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.
STEPHEN AMBROSE	D-DAY, JUNE 6, 1944: THE BATTLE FOR THE NORMANDY BEACHES	Published: 1994	Number of pages: 656	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, weapon, 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.
ANTONY BEEVOR	D-DAY: THE BATTLE FOR NORMANDY	Published: 2009	Number of pages: 591	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.
PETER CADDICK-ADAMS	SAND & STEEL: THE D-DAY INVASIONS AND THE LIBERATION OF FRANCE	Published: 2019	Number of pages: 1025	A recently published book, which has all the means to become a classic. Caddick-Adams did a superb work of 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 comprehensive history of D-Day.

JULY 20 PLOT / GERMAN RESSISTANCE

MANVELL & FRAENKEL	THE JULY PLOT	Published: 1964	Number of pages: 250	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.
NIGEL JONES	COUNTDOWN TO VALKYRIE: THE JULY PLOT TO ASSASSINATE HITLER	Published: 2008	Number of pages: 320	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 debateful or cliche-like assumptions, whilst preserving a broadly-based admiration toward the main character.
PETER HOFFMAN	STAUFFENBERG: A FAMILY HISTORY: 1905-1944	Published: 1994	Number of pages: 442	With certainty, this is the most compelling work about Claus Von Stauffenberg, his brothers, wife, and children. Hoffman 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.
JOACHIM FEST	PLOTTING HITLER’S DEATH: THE GERMAN RESISTANCE TO HITLER 1933-1945	Published: 1994	Number of pages: 420	While better known for his biography of Hitler, Fest had a few other resourceful books. This one focuses primarily on the resistance among the Army and politicians since Hitler’s rise to power, leaving social opposition off the scene. Evidently, Stauffenberg’s plot, told in detail both from a broader view and on behalf of its participants, is the key ingredient of the story and its narration climax. The book is a very readable, but not a comprehensive account of neither the German resistance nor the story of Stauffenberg.

THE WAR AT SEA

E.B.POTTER	THE GREAT SEA WAR: THE STORY OF NAVAL ACTION IN WORLD WAR II	Published: 1960	Number of pages: 480	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 to the overall understanding of the War at sea before and during WWII in every theater of operations, though it lacks depth and between-the-lines history conclusions. It misses no important issues or battles in the Atlantic, Pacific, or Mediterranean, except that they are told too compactly and superficially.
FRIEDRICH RUGE	DER SEEKRIEG: THE GERMAN NAVY'S STORY 1939-1945	Published: 1954	Number of pages: 426	Ruge was not only a high-ranking Navy officer during and after WWII but a good military historian. He starts with an introduction to the War at sea thinking, the interwar period, and follows through all major navy campaigns and battles participated 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.
CRAIG L. SYMONDS	WORLD WAR II AT SEA: A GLOBAL HISTORY	Published: 2018	Number of pages: 770	Professor Symons 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, transport, and combat, on WWII in general for Germany, Italy, Britain, USA, and Japan.
PHILLIPS O'BRIEN	HOW THE WAR WAS WON: AIR-SEA POWER AND ALLIED VICTORY IN WORLD WAR II	Published: 2015	Number of pages: 640	Payson’s work is an example of a brilliantly fluent new-era history of WWII while perceiving it from the idea, that it was the supremacy at sea and in the air, that made it possible for the Allies to win over Germany, Italy, and Japan. The book is written in the ‘Wages of destruction’ manner and thoroughly examines the air and naval power of the key WWII players before and throughout the war both in Europe and in the Pacific, and, more importantly, the shift in supremacy and its impact on the global war. Particularly intriguing to study the reevaluations of the great land battles.