No Simple Victory

World War II in Europe, 1939-1945

By: Norman Davies

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 20 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

If history really belongs to the victor, what happens when there's more than one side declaring victory? That's the conundrum Norman Davies unravels in his groundbreaking book No Simple Victory. Far from being a revisionist history, No Simple Victory instead offers a clear-eyed reappraisal, untangling and setting right the disparate claims made by America, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union in order to get at the startling truth.

In detailing the clash of political philosophies that drove the war's savage engine, Davies also examines how factors as diverse as technology, economics, and morale played dynamic roles in shaping battles, along with the unsung yet vital help of Poland, Greece, and Ukraine (which suffered the highest number of casualties). And while the Allies resorted to bombing enemy civilians to sow terror, the most damning condemnation is saved for the Soviet Union, whose glossed-over war crimes against British soldiers and its own people prove that Communism and Nazism were two sides of the same brutal coin.

No Simple Victory is an unparalleled work that will fascinate not only history buffs but anyone who is interested in discovering the reality behind what Davies refers to as "the frozen perspective of the winners' history".

©2007 Norman Davies (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Enormously readable....This will explode all your ideas about the 'Good War.' " (Details)
"This is a self-consciously contrary book, cutting against the grain of much self-congratulatory Western writing since 1945." (London Sunday Telegraph)
"Davies' topical approach judiciously surveys the military, economic and political aspects of the war....His interpretations rest on solid scholarly work." (Publishers Weekly)

Not your high school history lesson

No Simple Victory takes the you beyond The Greatest Generation and Anglo-centric history of the second world war. It looks at the Eastern front and the soviet role. The Nazi Reich was evil but it was not the only evil in the world. This books takes an objective look at all sides and the decisions that were made. There is a particular emphasis on Stalin and the Soviet forces, especially how their conduct was often as bad if not worse than the Nazi's.
History is written by the winners but that isn't always the end of the story, the author looks deeper and tells some uncomfortable truths.

Stalin as the "star" of WW2

Norman Davies has a point and you won't be able to escape it in this book. Stalin was as bad as Hitler. Maybe genocide is worse than just plain old killing but the body counts are similar. Davies isn't denying anything about the holocaust but he wants us to know about the gulags too. And while he is telling you about how bad Stalin is he also wants us to know that the Allies could not have won the war without the USSR.
But why should you read yet another history of WWII? First, the breakup of the USSR led to the release of many documents from the Stalin era. Second, in the U.S. we get a very filtered, even biased view of the war. Third, Simon Vance's energy as the narrator never falters through the 20 hours of narration.
The author says D-Day wasn't among the top 10 battles of the war. The battle of Kursk was the most decisive. He talks about issues that are rarely mentioned: the effect of the war on civilian women, the Warsaw uprising, the impact on children, the terrible price a community paid if one side or the other decided that it would hold the line there.
Is this book for you? Do you know about the Katyn massacre? If not, google it and see if you aren't interested in learning more. Are you someone who reads history with a critical/skeptical eye? Norman Davies is your guy.
I normally deduct one star for a non-fiction book that is not read by the author himself, unless he/she has some really good excuse like being dead. But I found this book from an Audible listing of narrator choices so I can't deduct this time. At least Simon Vance has the same accent as Davies (I'm presuming).
The reason I can't give this a 5 star review is that it is a bit hard to follow as an audible book. This material is not presented in chronological order, more like a loop that goes back again and again for more detail or another viewpoint. Also, this is not just a history book, far from it. It is also a critique of how history is written and that is probably this book's strongest point.

More of a Reference Book

I made it all the way through the book and learned a great deal I never knew or suspected about World War II so I'm glad I did. Despite the always-fantastic narration by Simon Vance, the book reads more like an encyclopedia or a reference book than a novel or even a historical book. If you are a true WWII buff I would think you would the hardcopy of this book so you can thumb through it and look up the topics that interest you. If you are more of a casual historian (as I am) it can be tough to make it through but it's definitely worthwhile. Note that the author minimizes the U.S.'s role in the war and role in bringing the war to victory. His position is well-substantiated but some Americans might find that viewpoint off-putting or even painful.

Facts and figures galore

This book is for anyone that wants to know the real facts and figures on WWII. Especially the figures.

What a masterpiece that is also extremely well read by the narrator.

Buy it. Unless you do not like (the real) details you will not be disappointed.........

No words can describe the inhumanity

My dad was in WW 2 and would NEVER talk about it, after listening to this book I know why. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around what took place. The numbers quoted in this book are staggering! The torture incomprehensible!
I keep thinking about the protesters complaining about the U.S. using water boarding!!

Great performance but this history was not for me

I thought this book would be exactly what I wanted. A comprehensive modern history of World War II, performed by my favorite narrator. But the book was not for me. The author is strongly indignant that atrocities committed by all of the participants have been ignored or not fully reported. And also to a certain extent, the author wants to explain how he would have run certain aspects of the war if it had been up to him. I thought about citing examples, but mainly, all I am interested in is what happened (hopefully described in an interesting way). This book reads like a political blog, critical of both the actions and lack of action of the wartime participants and also the historians who have since recorded these actions.

What you don't learn in Saving Private Ryan

Here you learn than the US and Britain played a supporting role in the victory over Germany. That, at least, is the author’s view and he makes a good case for the proposition. Davies offers a critical view of how western historians have written about the war and consequently how the public views the war. We have downplayed if not ignored the Soviet role in defeating Germany. He asks you to name the six most ferocious battles of World War II. If any of the battles you picked were on the western front you’re wrong. The eastern front is where the most intense fighting took place and where an huge number of Russian soldiers died, far beyond what the men lost in the English and the American armed forces. Germany may well have prevailed had they not invaded Russia.

Davies also reviews the atrocities committed by the Allies. Germans, we learn, were the war criminals but our indiscriminate bombing of German cities and killing of civilians is passed off as collateral damage.

All in all, this is a terrific book, marvelously narrated by Simon Vance. It is full of numbers: soldiers, tanks, planes, divisions, deaths but listening to them being enumerated is sometimes overwhelming. One need not agree with Davies on all points, but it is hard to dismiss his thesis that the war was not a simple one that can be reduced to the D-Day invasion.

all encompassing fascinating details

What made the experience of listening to No Simple Victory the most enjoyable?

clear animated voice

What was one of the most memorable moments of No Simple Victory?

the authors discussion of historiography and its western bias

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

yes i want to read all of the authors books

Any additional comments?

i want to meet and talk with mr davies

Fascinating

Such an interesting book and an excellent job of narrating it by Simon Vance. In this book, Norman Davies has no problem looking at the facts and stories to show just how oppressive the Soviet party was. I would recommend this book to any reader (or listener as the case may be) who is interested in a new perspective of World War II history. Well worth the money!

The Crime Explained

Now here is what Americans need to understand about our glorious Victory of 1945. The details in this history of the 1940s war are necessary knowledge. Our entire National WW2 Myth needs to be refreshed with some deeper understanding. What do you think when you see FDR and Churchill and Stalin all hanging out together smiling and laughing? What if it was Hitler they were hanging out with in all of those pictures from those big Conferences? Would it make a difference if it was Stalin or Hitler? Why? Did the U.S. fight the right war? Should the U.S. have been involved with any of these people to begin with? Just why the hell did England declare war on Germany again? And then look who they let wind up with Poland when it was all over! Would I be wrong to advocate that the U.S. should have made peace with Germany and team up to bring all of its force to bear on the USSR? Why? Whats the difference? Do body counts matter? - because let me tell you WW2 was no simple victory - was it victory? What did 1945 do to this country? Was the U.S. really the ally of the world's bloodiest mass murderer?