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Stalin's War: A New History of World War II
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About This Book
A major new history of the Second World War by a prize-winning historian We remember World War II as a struggle between good and evil, with Hitler propelling events and the Allied powers saving the day. But Hitler's armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit the spoils of war. That role belonged to Joseph Stalin. Hitler's genocidal ambition may have unleashed Armageddon, but as celebrated historian Sean McMeekin shows, the conflicts that emerged were the result of Stalin's maneuverings, orchestrated to unleash a war between capitalist powers in Europe and between Japan and the Anglo-American forces in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the United States and Britain's self-defeating strategy of supporting Stalin and his armies at all costs allowed the Soviets to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism. A groundbreaking reassessment, Stalin's War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the roots of the current world order.
Reviews
"If you doubt that the American and British governments were thoroughly penetrated and influenced by Communist agents in the 1930s and 1940s, McMeekin will put those doubts to rest ..."
"McMeekin is a superb writer."
"McMeekin writes well and has the language skills to comb through a huge amount of archival material, though in the Russian case not always accurately."
"Packed with incisive character sketches and illuminating analyses of military and diplomatic maneuvers, this is a skillful and persuasive reframing of the causes, developments, and repercussions of WWII."
"The author's provocative suggestion that America should have allowed the two evil empires to fight it out will ruffle feathers, but it effectively kills the idea that WWII was a battle of good vs."
"McMeekin's criticism of the western leaders, while not entirely unjustified, sometimes reads like a reprimand for not adopting Stalin's logic and his methods of foreign policy: dividing the world into capitalists and communists and, if needs be, allying himself with Nazi Germany or fascist Italy to achieve geopolitical goals that he shared with them ..."
"There are new books every year that promise 'a new history' of such a well-studied subject as World War II, but McMeekin actually delivers on that promise ..."
"He seems too keen to shock, to say the unsayable."
"His book will, as he must hope, make us re-evaluate the war and its consequences."
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