Why The Allies Won - Hardcover

Overy, Richard

4.17

2,080 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022404172X ISBN 13: 9780224041720

Publisher: Random House UK, 1995

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The modern world is undergoing painful transformation. Why the Allies Won looks at the last time democracy was going through such turbulence.

As Richard Overy makes clear, the Allied victory in 1945 — though comprehensive — was far from inevitable. By 1942 almost the entire resources of continental Europe were in German hands, and Japan had wiped out the western colonial presence in Asia. Democracy appeared to have had its day.

Overy provides a re-interpretation of the war through an account of the decisive military campaigns that created the astonishing revival in Allied fortunes. He also explores the deeper factors that determined success and failure: industrial strength, fighting ability, the skills of leaders, and the moral contrasts between the two sides.

Today, the modern world is once more in the throes of painful transformation. It is essential to establish why and how the last great war was won. Why the Allies Won casts a brilliant light on the most important turning point of the modern age.

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Review:

Having won an unprecedented series of victories and acquired huge new territories in 1942, Germany and Japan seemed poised to dominate most of the world. A year later both empires were reeling back in the face of Allied assaults. The rapid turnaround, King's College history professor Richard Overy writes, came about largely as a result of technological innovation and structural responsiveness. The Allies were able to convert their economies to a war footing with few institutional fetters, while the Axis powers imposed layers of bureaucracy that often competed internally. In fact, Overy writes, at one point during the war, the Luftwaffe had more than 425 different aircraft models in production, the result of different state agencies' and manufacturers' vying to push their models into the order of battle. The defeated Axis powers' conversion to their foes' economic model enabled them, according to Overy, to become technological leaders in the postwar years. His study is full of detail, and it makes for very good reading.

About the Author:

Richard Overy is Professor in History at the University of Exeter. His books include William Morris; Viscount Nuffield; The Air War, 1939-1945; The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia; The Nazi Economic Recovery 1932-1938; Goering: The Iron Man All Our Working Lives; The Origins of the Second World War; The Road to War; War and Economy in the Third Reich; The Inter-War Crisis; Russia’s War: A History of the Soviet Effort; and The Battle: Summer 1940.

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