The Second World War

The Second World War-A Complete History was the book chosen for this review. It was published in 1989 by Martin Gilbert. Martin Gilbert was a distinguished Britain historian. He graduated Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1960, he received a first class honor degree in modern history. For two years, he was a research scholar at St. Anthonys College, Oxford. He was elected in 1962 to a fellowship at Merton College, Oxford. He worked with Randolph Churchill on the biography of Sir Winton Churchill. He did 20 years of research on Churchill. He wrote Never Despair. He also wrote The Holocaust and Auschwitz and the Allies. This book was chosen for the review because of the historical and detail facts that were given during World War II. It was also chosen because of the many visual aids in the book to make it easier to comprehend. It presents massive amounts of detailing, map outlines of the war, and pictorials to help fully understand why the war was fought. Martin Gilberts direction in the book, The Second World War, was to inform the reader of the events that took place during WWII as well as inform them on its conclusion. He explained the strategies of the five super powers and the different wars pertaining to different countries. He believed this was the most costly war in human history. Gilbert tried to reflect upon the destructive events of the war by displaying the effects on the human condition. He did this through the emphasis and detail of fact within the book. Gilbert states that; ...it is the unnamed men, women, and children whose tragedy is the bitter By saying this, he focuses on the lives changed by the war due to the actual events taken place. The Second World War is basically a documentation of the factual events and strategies that took place from 1939 until 1945. On September 1, 1939 the war began with the invasion of Poland by Germany. Declarations of war soon followed agai...