Table Of Contenthistory
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Stone leads readers through the escalation, climax, and PrAiSE For NorMAN StoNE’S W
W o r L D
mournful denouement of this sprawling conflict. WorLD War one
Brisk yet profound, World War Two is an after the unprecedented destruction of the Great
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invaluable contribution to our understanding of the War, the world longed for a lasting peace. the
twentieth century and its defining struggle. r W a r t W o victors, however, valued vengeance even more
“Smooth, efficient and highly readable…. Stone manages to hold the reader’s attention until the last than stability and demanded a massive indemnity from
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page. his book is full of fascinating asides for those who thought that European history could hold no Germany in order to keep it from rearming. the results,
more surprises.” —Wall Street Journal D as eminent historian Norman Stone describes in this
A Short hiStory authoritative history, were disastrous.
“only a virtuoso could, in the space of a long essay, cover the fighting on all its fronts and still find room for in World War Two, Stone provides a remarkably
high politics, trenchant comment and colorful detail.” —Financial timeS, Book of the year W concise account of the deadliest war of human history,
showing how the conflict roared to life from the ashes
“Cogent and pungent…. [Stone] has a marvelous eye for detail.” —the Guardian (London) a of World War one. Adolf hitler rode a tide of popular
desperation and resentment to power in Germany,
r
“Stone offers what few British historians can: the view from elsewhere, a sense of what the war looked like promptly making good on his promise to return the
outside the Western Front.” —independent (London) nation to its former economic and military strength.
he bullied Europe into giving him his way, and in so
norman stone t
5-5/8 x 8-1/2”
has taught “[A] briskly written, highly argumentative history that summarizes the problems and the people involved in doing backed the victors of the Great War into a corner.
S: 13/16”
at the universities of Cambridge, oxford, and Bilkent, them in a headlong dash through the period…. Breathtaking.” —neWark Star-ledGer W Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and B: 9/16”
where he is currently director of the turkish-russian France declared war on Germany—a decision that, BASIC
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Center. Author of The Atlantic and Its Enemies, World “A special pleasure—a concise, pithy mix of fact and judgment.” —dallaS morninG neWS o Stone argues, was utterly irrational. yet hitler had
4/COLOR
War One, and the Wolfson Prize-winning The Eastern driven the world mad, and the rekindling of European
Front, 1914-1917, Stone lives in oxford and istanbul. hostilities soon grew to a conflagration that spread across
FINISH:
$25.00 US / $28.00 CAN norman the globe, fanned by political and racial ideologies more Gritty Matte
ISBN 978-0-465-01372-2 poisonous—and weaponry more destructive—than
Jacket design by Nicole Caputo 52500 stone
Jacket photograph © Dmitri Baltermants / A Member of the Perseus Books Group the world had ever seen. With commanding expertise,
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12/12 9 780465 013722
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WORLD WAR TWO
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ALSO BY NORMAN STONE
The Atlantic and Its Enemies
World War One
The Eastern Front, 1914–1917
Europe Transformed
Turkey: A Short History
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NORMAN STONE
WORLD WAR TWO
A Short History
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
New York
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Copyright © 2012 by Norman Stone
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permis-
sion except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and
reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street,
15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.
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Typeset in 10-point Sabon LT Std by the Perseus Books Group
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-0-465-01372-2
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List of Maps ix
Introduction xi
Chapter One: Between the Wars 1
Chapter Two: Germany Ascendant 25
Chapter Three: Barbarossa 47
Chapter Four: Pearl Harbor and North Africa 71
Chapter Five: The Russian Turn-Around 93
Chapter Six: Fanaticism and Hate, 113
Muddle and Delay
Chapter Seven: Nazism and Communism 133
Chapter Eight: West and East 151
Chapter Nine: The End 173
Aftermath 189
Acknowledgements 207
Some Sources 209
Index 215
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List of Illustrations
Georges Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson, and 1
David Lloyd George after signing the Treaty of
Versailles, June 1919
German soldiers marching past the Arc de 25
Triomphe, June 1940
Citizens of Lwów cheering the arrival of German 47
troops, July 1941
New Zealand troops in the Western Desert, 71
December 1941
Friedrich von Paulus after surrendering at 93
Stalingrad, February 1943
US Navy Dauntless dive-bombers during the 113
Battle of Midway, June 1942
Jews being rounded up in the Warsaw Ghetto, 133
sometime in 1943
American troops en route to Normandy, 151
June 1944
Soviet troops putting up flags on the remnants 173
of the statue on the Brandenburg Gate, 1945
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List of Maps
1. Political Boundaries in 1923 202
2. The Nazi Empire at Its Maximum Extent, 204
Autumn 1942
3. World War Two in Asia and the 206
Pacific, 1941–45
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