The Second World War

By: Antony Beevor

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

Length: 39 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of World War II. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the 20th century, The Second World War.

In this searing narrative, which takes us from Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 to V-J day on August 14th, 1945, and the war's aftermath, Beevor describes the conflict and its global reach - one that included every major power. The result is a dramatic and breathtaking single-volume history that provides a remarkably intimate account of the war that, more than any other, still commands attention and an audience.

Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's grand and provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on this complex, tragic, and endlessly fascinating period in world history. It confirms once more that he is a military historian of the first rank.

©2012 Antony Beevor (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Excellent.

An excellent history of WWII. Very comprehensive with fresh insights. Recommend. I especially enjoyed the analysis regarding what Stalin thought of Roosevelt & Truman.

Sir Antony Beevor at his best

This is an epic telling of World War II in its entirety, without bias or pretense. It’s factual, brutal, and breathtaking. Beevor is well known for his spectacular retelling of the most captivating moments in history, namely war. Sean Barrett’s tone and pacing keeping the story moving at just the right speed. Not too fast, and not too slow. It’s utter perfection.

Let down buy the narration.

Great content but read by a very boring sounding person who appears to be trying to sound as bored as possible.

Superb

Narration is clear, well done.

Treatment is thorough, comprehensive, judiciously detailed, interesting, informative, even handed and equally as good as all the other comprehensive single volume histories on this subject.

A towering work of history

I know what you may be thinking. I was as well. Do we really need yet another book about the Second World War? I checked it out because of my familiarity with some of the author’s previous work. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read on the same topic, and yet there were things here of which I was not aware and learned for the first time. to be sure, it is not perfect. The author seems intent on deflating the myths of Roosevelt, Churchill, Eisenhower, Montgomery, et al, And there is considerable discussion, maybe even excessive, of instances of rape and cannibalism throughout the work. All that being said, though, this book is a tremendous achievement in its field.

Pacific Theater

One of the best WWII histories My grandfather fought in the Pacific during the war. Beevor’s account matches my Grandfather’s exactly.

About as extensive as it gets

Would you listen to The Second World War again? Why?

Yes, It really takes more than one listen just to get all of what is happening

Who was your favorite character and why?

It is non-fiction, not really applicable here

Any additional comments?

As the title indicates, this is a grand sweeping view of the entire war experience. Obviously some of the detail minutes are lost, but to get the overall view of WW II, this is one of the best books which I have encountered

A deep and uncomfortable dive into World War II

This is one of the best books on WWII that I've ever read. It's very long, very detailed and dense, but does an excellent job at chronicling both the European and Pacific theatres, citing sources as varied as correspondence between front-line soldiers and spouses to first-hand reports from journalists on the ground. I learned SO much from this book. But, I also had some issues with how the book is presented.

While there are numerous citations, there are also significant areas where Beevor makes assumptions not backed by anything, and in some cases, feels a little more like his personal opinion, more than I think is appropriate in a book of this magnitude. That said, there's plenty of positions Beevor presents based on historical records that are unfiltered by Beevor and presented for what they were.

In particular, France is not painted in a positive light, nor is Churchill's decision-making (effectively the records paint Churchill as a brilliant strategist but a tepid tactician). Another eye-opening position to me as an American is Roosevelt, whom my American history classes paint positively, but whom historical records show a man completely out of his element whose indecisiveness and poor military knowledge should have seen far worse results.

There was also some interesting points where Beevor breaks the chronological order to provide an aside, connecting the subject matter to more recent historical research, which, while interesting, was an unwelcome break in cadence as it broke the flow of information (as previously noted, the book is dense with details, times, events, etc. so any interruption to this is jarring in my opinion).

I do want to commend Beevor for including the perspectives and sharing the very real, sad, and horrible impacts to "normal" and "civilian" populations, particularly those in the Pacific Theatre whose stories are often completely ignored or overlooked as less important.

If you're looking for a deep dive into World War II, this is the book to go to, but be prepared, the journey is long and full of despair.

The narration of this audiobook was FANTASTIC, and I appreciated the accurate pronunciations of German and Russian words. The even pace and tone made listening effortless.

Very good

Very good overview of WW2. More emphasis and detail is given to the eastern front than other theaters. The pacific is marginalized in my view (but Ian Toll covers this extensively). But given the vast scope of the conflict, the author does a good job of covering the impact and interplay of events from different theaters. This book was an excellent companion to Beevor's other works which focus on specific battles.

Long, but SOOO worth the time

There are many facts and stories in this book if which i had never heard, and I consider my self a history nut with a severe focus on WW2.

So to hear stories of other atrocities, such as organized and systematic cannibalism by the Japanese simply floor me. And FYI, Australian, British and US forces were regularly on the menu.
These facts sere never mentioned in war crime trials later.

Why? the victors wanted to put the war and all its horrors, behind them and move forward.

Great book!!