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I have 12 hours to decide if I want to buy the whole collection of these books. They cover the history of WW2 in 39 books and where published in the 70s. I remember at the library by one of the holiday houses we used to go to there where 3 books but I cant remember how good they where.

Can anybody recommend them? I wouldn't mind adding them to my shelf. Especially if they are well worth the read.

Are they just B&W photo's covering the entire duration of the conflict?

No its text and photos. Lots of drawings as well.

The information within is likely out of date (there was a huge revolution for WWII history when the Russian archives were open immediately after the iron curtain fell) but those books are practically history unto themselves at this point. And that's a cool thing. If owning a piece of history appeals to you, go for it. Those books played a huge role in the Social History revolution of the 1970's.

That sounds convincing enough...

I'll triple check they are the originals and if they are ill make good use of them.


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Alright I purchased them. Cheers

The only history that is out of date in those books is the stuff from the eastern front (for reasons already stated). In all my reading, everything that covers the British in the desert, the Americans in Sicily, and Normandy and afterward is pretty much the same.

Im particularly in the theatres of China, Spain (civil war), Pacific and early war history. But I end up reading it any and anything. So thats good that it should mostly be up to date.

What has changed about the Soviet related history?

Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, the Soviet archives were closed to the public. You needed permission from the government to see anything, and shock, you only saw what they wanted you to see.

When the USSR fell and when Yeltsin was in charge there was a period of a few years where the archives were completely open and a lot of things were uncovered, one of the biggest being that the Red Army committed as many war crimes in the Eastern Front (if not more) than the Wehrmacht and SS. Accurate casualty reports, internal documents, private correspondences all became publicly available and caused a huge amount of redraw of the shape, tone, and understanding of how the Eastern Front was fought and executed.

The archives are unfortunately closed again, but that brief window was pretty big on history of the Eastern Front.

I'd argue though that narratives of the entire war have shifted since the 70's, as part of that, moving away from America being the 'big damn hero' and focusing a great deal more on the grand strategy and internal politics of the allies, as well as how woefully unprepared for the war the US was. For many decades everyone kind of silently played down just how big the Eastern War was, and the politics of the Cold War kind of hindered that narrative as well. But by the mid-90's no historian could really argue anymore that Communist Russia had pretty much saved the free world (irony, thy name is Stalin).

Another big change was the death of Hirohito in 1989. Japanese academics and contemporary officials were reluctant to discuss him and the inner workings of the Imperial Japanese government during his life time (the Emperor is still a revered position for many Japanese). Once Hirohito died, many people started talking more about what Japan's government was like during the war.

That actually makes me glad to have purchased them. The books ranged from the 70s to 1981 he said so it would be interesting to compare what I read with other sources.

Fascinating stuff

You should check out Roosevelt's "Arsenal of Democracy" speech on youtube. It was made at the time Germany and Russia were still seeming friends, divying Poland up and the rest of continental Europe was almost totaly overrun, with Britain gamely carrying on the fight.
It was made when the only thing the U.S. Really had going for it militarily was a good Navy.
Russia and Germany were ranked at 1 and 2 in the world and the U.S. was ranked around 18th or 19th.
My father was in WW2 and he told me he had to train with a wooden rifle because there weren't enough weapons to go around.
A big ace the U.S had up it's sleeve was the fact that they had, in August formed the TWI service, which had revolutionized traing methods between it's creation in August 1940 and in December, 1940 when it cut a 5 year lens grinder apprenticeship to 5 months.
It introduced a method of training that kicked the door open on military production.

Relapse wrote:

My father was in WW2 and he told me he had to train with a wooden rifle because there weren't enough weapons to go around.

American tankers trained in plywood boxes with brooms for guns

 LordofHats wrote:

Relapse wrote:

My father was in WW2 and he told me he had to train with a wooden rifle because there weren't enough weapons to go around.

American tankers trained in plywood boxes with brooms for guns

Listen to that speech Roosevelt made and contrast that with the military situation we had. The guy had some serious brass balls.

I'll definitely check that out.

Its interesting that that happened though, in most situations I have read about, its later in wars were broom sticks etc needed to be used for makeshift training.

Relapse wrote:
The guy had some serious brass balls.

He didn't have brass balls. You only need brass balls when you're afraid, and FDR ain't afraid of anything

 LordofHats wrote:

Relapse wrote:
The guy had some serious brass balls.

He didn't have brass balls. You only need brass balls when you're afraid, and FDR ain't afraid of anything

He was channeling Teddy.