About the Author:
Norman Stone is one of Britain's greatest historians. His major works include The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 (winner of the Wolfson Prize and published by Penguin), Europe Transformed and The Atlantic and Its Enemies (published by Penguin). He has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Bilkent, where he is now Director of the Turkish-Russian Centre. He lives in Ankara.
From Booklist:
This is a compact book that manages to cover most of the major aspects of the titular conflict. Stone, who has taught history at Cambridge, Oxford, and in Turkey, writes in a rapid-fire but clear style; while his narrative necessarily moves quickly, he manages to insert some useful and sometimes provocative analyses. His work is often written from a European perspective, and Stone doesn’t hesitate to ravage European, especially British, leaders for their miscalculations that allowed Hitler to gain and then maintain power. On strictly military matters, Stone sometimes disputes conventional wisdom. For example, he asserts that Hitler’s Norwegian “victory” was actually a long-term defeat. Stone’s concluding chapter on the aftermath of the war is particularly well done, as he asserts that many of the unresolved issues in 1945 would not be settled until the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the demise of the Soviet Union. This is an ideal work for general readers who require an introduction to the causes, course, and results of the war. --Jay Freeman
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