The Storm of War

A New History of the Second World War

By: Andrew Roberts

Narrated by: Christian Rodska

Length: 28 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

The Second World War lasted for 2,174 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' 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 war - the grand strategy and the individual experience, the cruelty and the heroism - as never before.

In researching this magnificently vivid history, Roberts walked many of the key battlefields and wartimes 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 Fuhrer's order to halt the Panzers outside Dunkirk - a 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.

©2011 Andrew Roberts (P)2011 Tantor

loved the presentation

This was a very insightful presentation full of historical facts, figures, quotes and anecdotes. A n outstanding reading and even though you know the ending, it is still spellbinding.

Comprehensive

I really enjoyed this detailed compilation of stories, facts statistics and analysis. A truly work of art when it comes to narration and may I say theater!

British reader poor performance

Would you consider the audio edition of The Storm of War to be better than the print version?

Didn't read print version.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Storm of War?

It was all very memorable since I was in high school at the time and my brother was in the pacific on a destroyer escort ship.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

His typical British pronunciation of many of the words. His total inability to pronounce most of the American names of important people. And finally his use of foreign language sayings without explaining what the English version was.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

No idea.

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the book except for the reader.

Brilliant

We are so lucky to have Andrew Roberts. His compilation, analysis, and presentation of the World War II documentation, both official and personal at times, gives us the most intelligent picture of this horrible time in history. The performance of the narrator is also first class.

Amazing piece of history

The performance of the reader makes a great piece into the best piece of ww2 history I’ve heard or read in my life (out of dozens)

Captivating and thorough

I have been searching for a book like this for a long time and it did not disappoint. A very in-depth study of WWII.

A Thorough Treatment of World War Ii

If you have an interest in 20th century history, you'll want to read this one. The author manages to thoroughly cover World War Ii in terms of the fighting, the economies impacted, the holocaust, the atom bomb and the consequences of the treaties that ended the war. A Must-Have for any lover of World War Ii history!

A very interesting book with some shortcomings.

I have been reading about the Second World War for the last 50 years and so did not expect to find anything really new in this book. I bought it thinking that it would be good to have a single volume that covered both the European and Pacific theaters and with the thought that there might be something new and interesting in it. What I found was a book that was very interesting; not so much because of new material, but rather because the book centers on the "whys" of what happened and contained a great deal of "back story" about the time that is missing in other books (examples - the actions in North Africa before the German troops were deployed there, the importance of the spy operations on both sides, the actions in generally neglected threaters of the war such as Burma, the fact that the Germans had broken the British Naval codes and so on) as well as a good overview of the major actions of the war. Add to that the excellent narration by Christian Rodska, including his ability to make his voice sound exactly like many of the political figures of the time, and this is a hard book to top if you want something on World War 2.

There are some inaccuracies -

(a) a rise of 500 feet over a length of 1000 feet does NOT make a 45 degree hill. A simple check of the trig tables shows this to be about 27 degrees,

(b) a quote from Churchill (to his war cabinet) wrongly attributed to Hitler,

(c) a statement, with no supporting evidence, that Churchill invented the story of Lord Halifax almost being offered the premiership. This flies in the face of every other book about the period and thus requires some supporting evidence,

(d) aside from the Philippine Islands, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, very little detail about the Pacific war (with nothing about MacArthur's island hopping campaign). I assume this is because MacArthur's troops were mainly American.

as well as some other issues.

But, aside from these minor issues, this book is very interesting, contains a great deal of information about the war in North Africa, the Soviet Union and Western Europe as well as an interesting section on what could have happened if the German Generals had control over the war in the Soviet Union and Europe. I recommend it to anyone interested in a single volume overview of the Second World War.

Extraordinary! Book & narrative performance

What a book! What an extraordinary narrative performance! The sheer human carnage and historical folly of WW II painstakingly, brilliantly detailed. Reading/Listening to books such as The Storm of War ought to be considered a civic duty.

Almost didn't buy this book...

I almost didn't buy this book. I have read dozens of WWII histories and this seemed like it would be just another. I was wrong. Insightful analysis and an intelligent explanation of the 1939-1947 time period made me a believer. I say 1947 because it is clear from this story that WWII could easily have spanned that time period, and beyond. It is fair to say that this book turned around my entire thinking about what WWII meant to the world at the time and the world we live in today. On the surface, much of this books dwells on parts of WWII few others have discussed (e.g. Burma, Italy, etc.). But on a deeper level, it is a 21st century retrospective on what it all meant to us, the living today.Rodska's delivery is riveting. Robert's analsysis is dead on, tack sharp, and downright scary.