Stalin's War

A New History of World War II

By: Sean McMeekin

Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell

Length: 24 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

A prize-winning historian reveals how Stalin - not Hitler - was the animating force of World War II in this major new history.

World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia - and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war.

Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941-1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary.

McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American material, from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army.

This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.

A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is an essential book for anyone looking to understand the current world order.

©2021 Sean McMeekin (P)2021 Basic Books

Critic reviews

“A provocative revisionist take on the Second World War...an accomplished, fearless, and enthusiastic ‘myth buster’...McMeekin is a formidable researcher, working in several languages, and he is prepared to pose the big questions and make judgments.... The story of the war itself is well told and impressive in its scope, ranging as it does from the domestic politics of small states such as Yugoslavia and Finland to the global context. It reminds us, too, of what Soviet ‘liberation’ actually meant for eastern Europe.... McMeekin is right that we have for too long cast the second world war as the good one. His book will, as he must hope, make us re-evaluate the war and its consequences.” (Financial Times)

"Indispensable.... There are new books every year that promise ‘a new history’ of such a well-studied subject as World War II, but McMeekin actually delivers on that promise.” (Christian Science Monitor)

"Sean McMeekin’s revisionist Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II isn’t just one of the most compelling histories written about the war this year, it’s one of the best ever. I doubt anyone who reads it will think about the Second World War in the same way." (David Harsanyi, The Federalist's Notable Books of 2021)

A New Look on an Old War

This book provides and opens one’s eyes to a bitter side of World War 2 that most Americans have never seen or heard before. This jaw dropping book accounts how America’s politicians of the Great Generation conspired to give Stalin a blank check to murder millions and conquer vast amounts of Eastern European land. It sheds light on the fact that workings and people within our own government provided for these evil deeds and lied to the American people about it. Causing undo suffering on the home front while Stalin reaped the benefits of American stupidity and ignorance. Please, I recommend this book to anyone out there, not only as a fantastic read/listen, but also as a glimpse into the real history of World War 2.

Eye Opening Research

Good lord. What did FDR wrought? listen to this amazing work and find out! Incredible.

New Information Brought to Light

The research and work put into this book stands out with the amount of in depth analysis the author covers.

This book has been a great listen as it’s saturated with new information that brings an entirely new perspective into WWII and the inner workings of the lend lease program. Very thought provoking!

A fresh and disturbing reassessment of WWII

This is a superb book, well worth the time to absorb its nearly 700 pages. This could spark a new assessment of World War II. Josef Stalin is as cruel and ruthless as might be expected. The world leader
who shines less brightly in this book is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR and his inner circle, in particular Harry Hopkins, seem more tarnished, swimming in a toxic cocktail of hubris and naïveté.

This is the third book I have read by Professor McMeekin. He takes full advantage of his access to archives in Russia and other countries that suffered behind the Iron Curtin for so many years.

The best WW2 book ever

Well, after an interesting introduction, the book unraveled into a great deal of interesting diplomatic and intriguing affairs. I’m very pleased and I highly recommend reading this book!

a must listen

From the research to the conclusions and everything in between, this is a fantastic book. I can't recommend it enough. I'll probably buy a hard copy, so I can feel its substance in my hands.

New Perspective

I'm no historian, so I'm sure there were some biases or inaccuracies that I didn't catch, but overall I enjoyed hearing a perspective on WW2 that we seldom hear about from what I believe to be a very objective point of view. Russia, and more specifically Stalin, played a huge role in the war that is often seen from the US perspective as US vs Hitler (and Japan, which seems to be another thing Americans forget about aside from Pearl Harbor). It's often neglected how Stalin/Russia played both sides - frankly I think it helps bring clarity to how the US is involved in foreign affairs, as well as clarity on how modern day Russia got to be the considerable super power it is today.

Great book!

Fascinating, this is a must listen for anyone interested in a different perspective on the WW2 conflict …… great insight

Long but worth it

Very good listen, a little long to get thru but worth the effort . Added some new perspective to my Ww2 readings so far

A historical epiphany of the significance of World War II and its Leaders

This is the most persuasive interpretation of WW II that I had the pleasure to read. The book shows in a clear and convincing manner that Stalin, arguably the biggest totalitarian political mass criminal, from a century that has given us so many, Mao, Hitler, the Khamer Rouge’s Pol Pot, Fidel and Raul Castro, was, unfortunately, smarter, more cunning, and ran circles around our cherished leaders Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Spencer Churchill.

The result was the condemnation of half of mankind to Communism, the continuing threat of its expansion to the rest of mankind, and the eventual rise of the new challenge to World Peace presented by Communist China. You may or may not agree with the author’s analysis, as I do, but I promise that if you read this book, with an open mind, at the end you will realize that everything you thought you knew about WWII and these leaders was oversimplified, and distorted by historians motivated by political considerations, propaganda, and the product of pseudo scholars, too lazy or too coward to write the truth.

This author is a brave man. He deserves to be read or heard in Audible. Every conscientious woman or man would profit from reading, thus, becoming a more informed citizen of the World.
Rogelio Villageliu.