The World War II Bookshelf: 50 Must-Read Books

In "The World War II Bookshelf: Fifty Must Read Books", James F. Dunnigan tackles the demanding task of assembling a list of the best books on the enormously complex subject of World War II. If you took all the literature pertaining to World War II and placed it all in one spot, you would be swimming in an ocean of books. I am speaking of military and social histories, military strategies and campaigns, armaments and technologies, intelligence and spying, biographies and personal memoirs, and historiographies. Multiply these by both Allied and Axis powers and you had better get out your life jacket. In addition, there are still more books being published each year as new archival material becomes available to researchers and writers. Hurrah! for Dunnigan, who has taken the valiant yet dangerous plunge into the deep sea of World War II books in order to give us his 50 must read books. Dunnigan divides his book into five chapters wherein he offers readers a selection of books that cover the war from many, but not all angles. A clear synopsis follows each recommendation that describes what the reader can expect from the book. His reviews cover issues like military campaigns and strategies for fighting the war on the ground, atop and beneath the oceans, and in the air. These reviews allow readers to make a more informative decision as to what World War II books they may wish to purchase. Dunnigan's list covers some of the best books on this global epic. I was delighted to see that a couple of my favorites made his list: "A World at Arms", by Gerhard Weinberg, as well as Winston Churchill's "The Second World War". Gerhard Weinberg's book is a marvel of research and writing; it provides an incredible amount of detail - in a single volume. When it comes to World War II, it is difficult to imagine anyone writing a more superior account than Winston Churchill did. Churchill was intrigued by all things military. The fact that he lived and lead his country during that time made him one of the greatest military leaders of the war. It also gave Churchill a clear and expert understanding of the intricacies of war. While both titles are works of tremendous importance, they tend to be quite complex - especially "The Second World War" which was published in six volumes. Dunnigan' list is very useful for those wishing to build a formidable library on World War II. I own most of the books and enjoy reading and using them for research. Some of these gems are hard to come by - you may have to buy some of them used, but most are readily available. In his first chapter, "The Big Picture," Dunnigan presents us with a selection of books for general reading on World War II. His list contains some of the best World War II books, but I think that to better enjoy them, new readers of World War II history need to begin with even more general reading. With this in mind, I would recommend James L. Stokesbury's "A Short History of World War II," "A War to be Won: Fightin

WW2, according to some estimates is arguably the most wrote-about subject ever. (Jesus Christ and Napoleon being good bets as well.) For the average person, or heck the historian, the hundreds of books one finds even in the local bookstore beg the question, "So what's worth my money, and what's bogus?" Mr. Dunnigan attempts to answer this question with a short list of fifty books, covering the strategic aspects of WW2. The work includes popular history as well as scholarly books; the author's view being if you want to study the war, you're going to have to plod through some primary source material. I'm not normally a huge fan of Mr. Dunnigan. IMHO, he tends to dismiss inconvenient details in presenting his thesis. But overall, the choices and evaluations of the author are pretty good- not much to critique here. With two exceptions: he touts his previous works, "Dirty Little Secrets of WWII" and "The Pacific War Encyclopedia" in an appendix. Well, issues of ego aside, neither of these works is authoritative enough in my mind for inclusion in a list like this. That aside, this is a great reference for anyone to start independent research in what is probably the most significant event, ever.