World War II (1931-1945)
“The Second World War presented a mirror to the human condition which blinded anyone who looked into it.” — Norman Mailer, “The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster” (1957)
Of the endless ocean of books on the Second World War, we have dozens and dozens of new and carefully chosen titles. I define it as beginning with the Japanese Empire’s invasion of Manchuria and ending with not only V-E and V-J Days but also the immediate crises of displaced people, the Soviet Union’s creation of the Iron Curtain, and the growing revelations of the extent of the Holocaust.
In significant ways the Second World War was the defining crucible of the 20th Century. The First World War was prelude, the legacy of the 19th Century’s imperialism, and the Cold War was the sequel. Of the making of books about it there is no end — but the persistence of good research and good writing, and good publication underscores the war’s centrality of the world we live in today and the world our descendents will live in for the foreseeable future.
Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles
Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles
Considered by some to be the greatest general of World War II, General Georgi Zhukov served as the Chief of Staff of the Soviet High Command, leading Soviet troops against Germans in key battles of the war. In his account of four major campaigns in the war—the defense of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk, and the advance on Berlin—Zhukov describes his experiences preparing for German attacks, organizing counter-strikes, assessing the enemy, and issuing the orders that pushed the front west, towards Germany's capital. Zhukov also tells of his extensive arguments with Stalin during the war, and the political alliances and rivalries among the U. S. S. R.'s generals throughout the conflict.