missandylee 's review for:

The Second World War by Antony Beevor

5.0

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While this book is far from perfect (a perfect account of world war 2 does not exist), it is a phenomenally comprehensive and compellingly written account of the most incomprehensible global conflict in modern history. Beginning with the Japanese invasion of manchuria and ending with a survey of post-atomic bomb geopolitical chaos, Beevor constructs a fascinating story through a mixture of original research, first hand accounts, and official record, all while avoiding and even confronting most of the common myths and legends that continue to plague popular accounts of the war to this day. At times I feel that there are some strange choices made (only devoting a couple of pages to Operation Market Garden, for instance), and I do think Beevors seeming hatred of the Soviet Union occasionally blinds his objectivity, but regardless I absolutely loved my time with this book and would recommend it to absolutely anyone interested in learning more about the war.