num_pages: 712
description: From Britain's finest military historian (The Economist) comes a magisterial new history of World War II and the flawed axis strategy that led to their defeat. The Second World War lasted for 2174 days cost $1.5 trillion and claimed the lives of more than 50 million people. What were the factors that affected the war's outcome? Why did the Axis lose? And could they with a different strategy have won? Andrew Roberts's acclaimed new history has been hailed as the finest single-volume account of this epic conflict. From the western front to North Africa from the Baltic to the Far East he tells the story of the warthe grand strategy and the individual experience the cruelty and the heroismas never before. In researching this magnificently vivid history Roberts walked many of the key battlefields and wartime sites in Russia France Italy Germany and the Far East and drew on a number of never-before-published documents such as a letter from Hitler's director of military operations explaining the reasoning behind the Fhrer's order to halt the Panzers outside Dunkirka delay that enabled British forces to evacuate. Roberts illuminates the principal actors on both sides and analyzes how they reached critical decisions. He also presents the tales of many little-known individuals whose experiences form a panoply of the extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice as well as the terrible depravity and cruelty of the Second World War. Meticulously researched and masterfully written The Storm of War gives a dramatic account of this momentous event and shows in remarkable detail why the war took the course it did.
language: English
title: The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War
publisher: Harper