Good WWII books?

Question

What are some good WWII books, especially those not completely focused on combat, that are not too long (less than 500 pages)? I am looking for nonfiction or fiction. Thanks

Answer 1

Try:
"Eagle against the Sun"
"Bodyguard of Lies"
BTW' All Quiet on the Western Front" is a WW1 book.
"The Ultra Secret"
"The Codebreakers"

Answer 2

For less than 500 pages, you should try " Why the Allies Won", by Richard Overy. If you decide to take on something over 500 pages long, then the book for you is " A World at Arms" by Gerhart Weinberg. Both books take a deep look at both allied and axis nations that goes beyond just a simple recanting of battles. The military, economic, logistical, social and political situations of the key players are closely examined by both books.

Answer 3

The first couple or several books in 'The Corps' series by W.E. B. Griffith or maybe Griffin. He also did an entire series on WW 2, with each book having the title of an officer's rank. i.e. 'The Lieutenants', 'The Captains', The Majors', etc.

I've only read the first couple in the Corps series, but very much enjoyed them and have heard only very good things about the others.

Both series are 'fictionalized non-fiction' I guess you might say. Which is to say that I believe they sort of weave in and out of actual events.

Answer 4

You have to read....The Rise And Fall of The Third Reich. It is the 1st definitive account of Hitler and what led to WWII, and William Schirer was there, in Germany, for most of time, as a free-style journalist reporting on the events. A must-read for WW2 history. Reading it, you will know what to read afterwords. Sorry, but more than 500 pages, but regarded as some as the Bible of WW11 in Europe.

Answer 5

"Into That Darkness" is amazing. It is a non-fiction book that consists of an interview of Stangl, the head of one of the largest concentration camps in Germany. He gives detail as to how he got into Nazism, the concentration camps, and how he left the continent to escape trials after the war ended. He was later caught in Brazil. It is fascinating, because in the beginning of the book, you grow to like Stangl. The interviews with his wife and daughter make him sound like a great father and husband. Then you read about what he did and how he did it. It makes you look at Nazism in a whole new light. This book makes you look at particular Nazi officials as victims themselves...not really wanting to be apart of the movement, yet somehow found themselves in the middle of it. It makes you rethink the entire Nazi movement....

Answer 6

All is Quiet on the Western Front.


It looks at it from Germany's point of view. I saw the movie in World History and the book is really well written.

Also anything really by Tom Clancy. He's an amazing writer!

Answer 7

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED . . .

From. . .

War, Peace, and the State
by Joseph R. Stromberg
. . .


World War II: Causes and Consequences

General works on World War II include Captain B. H. Liddell-Hart, History of the Second World War (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970) and Esmonde M. Robertson, ed., The Origins of the Second World War (New York: St. Martins, 1971), as well as such revisionist works as A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War (New York: Premier Books [Fawcett World Library], 1961[1965]), and Charles A. Beard, American Foreign Policy in the Making, 1932-1940 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1946) and President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War, 1941: A Study in Appearances and Realities (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948). See also, William Appleman Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, "The War for the American Frontier," 160-200.

On the origins of the Pacific War, see A. Whitney Griswold, The Far Eastern Policy of the United States (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1938), Charles C. Tansill, Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy, 1933-1941 (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1952), Paul Schroeder, The Axis Alliance and Japanese-American Relations, 1941 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1958), William L. Neumann, America Encounters Japan: From Perry to MacArthur (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), Justus Doenecke, "The Debate Over Coercion: The Dilemma of America’s Pacifists and the Manchurian Crisis," Peace and Change, II, 1 (Spring 1974), pp. 47-52, and Thomas Breslin, "Mystifying the Past: Establishment Historians and the Origins of the Pacific War," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 8, 4 (October-December 1976), pp. 18-36.


Pearl Harbor Debate

The growing literature on Pearl Harbor includes George Morgenstern, Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War (New York: Devin Adair, 1947), Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald, The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor (New York: Devin Adair, 1954), Husband Edward Kimmel, Admiral Kimmel's Story (Chicago: Regnery, 1955), Harry Elmer Barnes, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1953), and "Pearl Harbor After Half a Century," Left and Right, IV (1968), pp. 9-132, reprinted as Pearl Harbor After Half a Century (New York: Arno Press, 1972), Ronald Radosh, "Democracy and the Formation of Foreign Policy: The Case of FDR and America’s Entrance into World War II," Left and Right, III, 3 (Autumn 1967), pp. 31-38, Bruce R. Bartlett, Cover-Up: The Politics of Pearl Harbor, 1941-1946 (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1978), John Toland, Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982), James Rusbridger and Eric Nave, Betrayal at Pearl Harbor: How Churchill Lured Roosevelt into World War II (New York: Summit Books, 1991), Robert Smith Thompson, A Time for War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Path to Pearl Harbor New York: Prentice Hall, 1991), and Robert B. Stinnett, Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor (New York: Free Press, 1999).

William Henry Chamberlin, America's Second Crusade (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1950), George N. Crocker, Roosevelt’s Road to Russia (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1959), and William L. Neumann, "Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy Decisions, 1940-1945," Modern Age (Summer 1975), pp. 272-284, are critical assessments of US participation in the war. For arguments that US entry was unnecessary, see Bruce M. Russett, No Clear and Present Danger: A Skeptical View of the United States' Entry into World War II (New York: Harper & Row, 1972) and Patrick J. Buchanan, A Republic Not an Empire: Reclaiming America’s Destiny (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1999), pp. 231-298.

John T. Flynn, As We Go Marching (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1944) and The Roosevelt Myth (San Francisco: Fox & Wilkes, 1998 [1948]), Dwight MacDonald, Memoirs of a Revolutionist (New York: Meridian Books, 1958), Richard Drinnon, Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), and Thomas J. Fleming, The New Dealers’ War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the War Within the War (New York: Basic Books, 2001), treat some domestic consequences of the war. For a collection of Flynn’s antiwar (and other) essays, see Gregory P. Pavlik, Forgotten Lessons: Selected Essays of John T. Flynn (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996).

For displacement of the British empire by the US, see Gabriel Kolko, The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943-1945 (New York: Vintage Books, 1968), John Charmley, Churchill’s Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship, 1940-1957 (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995), and Ralph Raico, "Rethinking Churchill" in Denson, ed., The Costs of War, pp. 321-360


Total War and World War II

For World War II as a high point of total war – in theory and practice – see F.J.P. Veale, Advance to Barbarism: The Development of Total Warfare from Sarajevo to Hiroshima (Appleton, Wisconsin: C. C. Nelson Publishing Co., 1953), Capt. Russell Grenfell, Unconditional Hatred: German War Guilt and the Future of Europe (New York: Devin Adair, 1958), David Irving, The Destruction of Dresden (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), William L. Neumann, "Hiroshima Reconsidered," Left and Right, II, 2 (Spring 1966), pp. 33-38, James J. Martin, Revisionist Viewpoints: Essays in a Dissident Historical Tradition (Colorado Springs: Ralph Myles, 1971), "The Bombing and Negotiated Peace Questions – in 1944," pp. 71-124, Barton J. Bernstein, "Hiroshima Reconsidered – Thirty Years Later," Foreign Service Journal (August 1975), pp. 8-34, and "Wrong Numbers," The Independent Monthly (July 1995), pp. 41-44, and Martin J. Sherwin, A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and the Origins of the Arms Race (New York: Vintage Books, 1987). Elbridge Colby, "Aerial Law and War Targets," American Journal of International Law, 19, 4 (October 1925), pp. 702-715, gives a rationale for future Anglo-American bombing practices before the fact.

Answer 8

star wars