The Second World War

This single-volume history covers the Second World War from start to finish. It opens with Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939, and runs to V-J day on August 14th, 1945, then follows into the war's aftermath.

Antony Beevor treats the conflict as a global event, one that drew in every major power. The book is a narrative history rather than a reference work, and it keeps its attention on the war as a whole while still giving an intimate view of how it was lived.

Beevor is a military historian whose earlier books include Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Here he widens the lens from those single campaigns to the entire war, which makes this his largest undertaking.

It suits readers who want one connected account of the war across all its theatres, rather than a study of a single battle. Expect a serious, sombre tone, given the scale of death and suffering the subject carries, and a sustained narrative that moves through six years of fighting.