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Moscow 1941: Hitler's First Defeat (Campaign)
Robert Forczyk
Osprey Publishing, 2006
Outstanding
+ Excellent Operational History, Dubious Conclusions
+ Pretty detail account of the campaign.
There are a lot of fascinating What Ifs about World War II -what if Hitler had not pulled up his panzers before Dunkirk, if the Luftwaffe had not switched bombing from airfields to London in the Battle of Britain, if the U.S. carriers had been caught at Pearl Harbor, if the German's had deployed ...
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Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime
Eliot Cohen
Free Press, 2002
War is too important to be left to the generals
+ Interesting book
+ Good Book on Leadership
+ Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime
+ Fully-vetted argument; could have been expanded
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The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny
Victor Davis Hanson
Free Press, 1999
Outstanding
+ Strongly-Argued, Intriguing, but Unconvincing
+ Thought-provoking but a tad repetitious
+ WHERE DOES FREEDOM COME FROM?
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Hitler's Panzers East: World War II Reinterpreted
R. H. S. Stolfi
University of Oklahoma Press, 1993
A Fascinating "What If...." Book and Analysis
+ Great book and a well supported argument
+ Finally a realistic appraisal of Barbarossa!
+ Very convincing arguments. Hitler almost won World War II in August 1941, but he didn't realize it.
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The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway
John B. Lundstrom
US Naval Institute Press, 2005
First Team Scores!
+ The First Team
+ Excellent overall, but a superb reference on the Battle of Midway
+ Excellent Detail of Fighter Operations
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Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
Max Hastings
Knopf, 2008
Fascinating - superlative effort
+ Overall themes excellent; some details a bit weak
+ Everything you ever wanted to know about the Pacific war, but were afraid to ask.
+ Truly a Downfall
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Panzer Leader
Heinz Guderian, General Heinz Guderian
Da Capo Press, 2001
Valuable Details on WWII Battles: Blitzkrieg 1939 and Warsaw Uprising
+ Courage, and brains, are not the property of one side...
+ Good inside story of the German military
I focus on matters not elaborated by the many other reviewers, and this review is based on the original (1952) edition.
Guderian claims that the Pomorska Cavalry Brigade charged German tanks with lances, "in ignorance of the nature of our tanks" (p. 72). This contrasts with western accounts, ...
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The Second World War
John Keegan
Penguin (Non-Classics), 1990
Essential History of WWII
+ Good basic overview, but beware...
+ Great command of the language and superb analysis
John Keegan has managed to accomplish what others could not -- write a sound, objective history of WWII, constrained to one volume, in a gripping, compelling manner.
If you have never read a history of the second world war -- this is the only place to start. Keegan provides a clear conceptual ...
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The Winds of War
Herman Wouk
Back Bay Books, 2002
Tolstoyan
+ More epic than classic
+ Wonderful book, would recommend to anyone
+ Wonderful
+ One of the best
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Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945
Max Hastings
Knopf, 2004
Very Enlightening...Abu Ghraib was nothing folks
+ An objective account of the last year of WWII.
+ always good reading
+ The Final Battle for Europe 1944/1945
+ Armageddon
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Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945
Martin van Creveld
Greenwood Press, 1982
Excellent reference material on quality versus quantity
+ What makes an army win?
This is a pretty expensive book but its well worth reading and owning if you are a serious student of World War II. To a serious student, its a well known fact that the quality of the German army was much higher then our's. We had quantity in terms of material while they had quality in terms of ...
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The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance (Classics of Naval Literature)
Thomas B. Buell
US Naval Institute Press, 1987
The Quiet Warrior:A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
+ Excellent War Biography: Designed for the Practitioner
+ Serviceable biography of an important figure in World War II
+ Fair biography, a bit cold
+ Ray Spruance found to be a great human
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Why the Allies Won
Richard Overy
W. W. Norton & Company, 1997
A WWII Veteran's Opinion
+ Uma visão histórica e complexa
+ Mr. Overy has a great analytical mind
+ Why the Allies Won the War -- review
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The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II
Thomas Fleming
Basic Books, 2002
Great!
+ The wartime conflict at home
+ bias?
+ A Different Side of FDR and his New Dealers
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A genius for war: The German army and general staff, 1807-1945
Trevor Nevitt Dupuy
Prentice-Hall, 1977
Excellent and Highly Intellectual!
+ There are better books about the General Staff
+ A clear, concise summary
+ More than military history
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