The Second World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert presents a "magisterial" (New York Times) single-volume history of the Second World War.

It began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. By the time it came to an end on V-J Day―August 14, 1945―it had involved every major power and become global in its reach. In the final accounting, it would turn out to be, in both human terms and material resources, the costliest war in history, taking the lives of thirty million people.

In one brilliant volume, eminent historian Martin Gilbert offers the complete history of WWII. With unparalleled scholarship and breadth of vision, Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill as well as one of the leading experts on the Holocaust, weaves together political, military, diplomatic, and civilian elements to provide a global perspective on the war, in a work that is both a treasure trove of information and a gripping, dramatic narrative.

Sir Martin Gilbert (1936-2015) was Winston Churchill's official biographer and a leading historian of the modern world. He was an Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College, Michigan.

He was the author of more than eighty books, among them the single-volume Churchill: A Life, his twin histories First World War and Second World War, a comprehensive History of Israel, and his three-volume work, A History of the Twentieth Century. His book The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy (published in the United States as The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War) is a classic work on the subject.