World War II: A history of the world's greatest conflict

From the bitter seeds of the Treaty of Versailles to the final, devastating mushroom clouds over Japan, this gripping history charts the course of the most destructive conflict in human history. It was a war that redrew the map of the world and forged the modern age, a global maelstrom that pulled in virtually every nation on Earth and resulted in an unimaginable death toll. This comprehensive narrative begins by exploring the festering wounds of the First World War and the rise of the ruthless ideologies—fascism, Nazism, and Japanese militarism—that propelled the world toward catastrophe. Follow the path of aggression from Japan's imperial ambitions in Asia to Hitler's calculated dismantling of peace in Europe through appeasement.
Experience the full, chronological sweep of the war across every major theater of operations. Witness the shocking success of Germany’s Blitzkrieg as it overran Poland and France, the desperate aerial struggle of the Battle of Britain, and the brutal, titanic clash on the Eastern Front following Operation Barbarossa. The narrative then shifts to the deserts of North Africa, the icy waters of the Atlantic, and the explosive entry of the United States into the war after the "date which will live in infamy" at Pearl Harbor. Relive the pivotal turning points that decided the world’s fate, from the grinding attritional victory at Stalingrad and the decisive naval battle at Midway to the monumental D-Day landings that opened the second front in Europe.
Beyond the battlefields, this account delves into the human experience of a "total war." Explore the mobilization of the home fronts, where factories were retooled and civilians became both participants and targets. Confront the systematic horror of the Holocaust, the Nazi regime’s state-sponsored campaign of genocide. The narrative traces the final, bloody chapters of the conflict—the brutal island-hopping campaign toward Japan, the race to Berlin between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, and the momentous decision to unleash the atomic bomb. Finally, it examines the war's complex aftermath: a world in ruins that saw the dawn of the nuclear age and the immediate onset of a new global standoff, the Cold War.