Michael J. Lyons

Good overview of World War II. It starts with an overview of World War I and continues the story until after the end of World War II through the Korean War and the formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

I know quite a bit about about this period of history already, but this book, even though a generic textbook, brought up some details that were new to me. Everything related to World War II is notoriously complex; I was impressed with how well the author constructed a readable narrative without dumbing down the complexity (at least not too much.) In particular, the 1930s is a really complicated period in history. This author did a good job of fitting all the complex political maneuvers, technological developments, etc., during this decade into an understandable narrative arc. Of course no single textbook of such a large and complex subject will satisfy everyone, but this is one of the better ones with judicious selection of facts and interpretations.… (meer)