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Bezig met laden... The Second World War: A Complete History (1989)door Martin Gilbert
THE WAR ROOM (658) Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. A receita para este excelente livro é uma pitada de tudo e nada em excesso. Assim, tem economia quanto baste, ideologia na medida em que é necessária para explicar os factos, estratégia militar e política porque é disso que afinal se trata, mas também episódios de gente comum que luta, sofre e morre, quer em combate, quer atrás das linhas. Talvez dê demasiada importância aos judeus, mas o autor investigou a questão judaica por isso quis utilizar todo o material disponível. Por detrás das grandes tendências há dramas humanos que o autor quis revelar. Acho que a História só fica a ganhar. Finalmente, há uma isenção que por vezes até dói. Apesar de tudo, gostei mais do livro do mesmo autor sobre a I Guerra Mundial. Pareceu-me mais dramático. Ou talvez fosse porque conheço melhor a história da Segunda Guerra do que a da Primeira.
Martin Gilbert's "The Second World War" (1989) is another fine, readable account, with a bit more emphasis on the decisions that drove the war rather than on the decision makers themselves. Mr. Gilbert manages the neat trick of telling the stories of the war on the Eastern Front, in North Africa and Italy and in the Pacific in a nearly simultaneous narrative. Time and again, he points out where Enigma decrypts and U.S. "Magic" breaks of the Japanese code gave the Allies an edge. And his meticulous notations of Nazi deportation and slaughter of Jews resonate through the story like tolling bells until just days before the fall of Berlin. Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)
Verwijzingen naar dit werk in externe bronnen. Wikipedia in het Engels (19)In the hands of master historian Martin Gilbert, the complex and compelling story of the Second World War comes to life. This narrative captures the perspectives of leading politicians and war commanders, journalists, civilians, and ordinary soldiers, offering gripping eyewitness accounts of heroism, defeat, suffering, and triumph. This is one of the first historical studies of World War II that describes the Holocaust as an integral part of the war. It also covers maneuvers, strategies, and leaders operating in European, Asian, and Pacific theatres. In additio Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)940.53History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- World War IILC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Gilbert's a very able historian of WWII and his choice to follow a strict, day by day, chronological approach was obviously very conscious, but it's also a serious flaw. I think he chose it primarily to bring out details and maintain focus on Nazi atrocities large and small, and those of the German army generally, as well as those of Imperial Japan. It works, to the point where it gets tiresome for me, and that’s because it so badly interferes with coherent historical narrative. Maybe more importantly, it contributes to this preposterously subtitled “complete” history of the war having large gaps in important areas. The battles for Stalingrad and St. Petersburg, for example, are so chopped up that it’s hard to pull the disparate pieces together. But they’re nevertheless covered reasonably well; we’re never told how and when German forces got into Italy, in what numbers, formations, with what materiel, etc. The Pacific war is particularly chopped up, and you’ll have to go elsewhere to get any clarity or detail about what was happening on the east Asian mainland.
To be fair, Gilbert certainly knew the weaknesses inherent in his approach and he surely chose it knowingly. It is too easy to think of the Holocaust as an abstraction, and a sanitized one, and to use that abstraction to avoid thinking about its true horrors, about the very human depths of evil involved, and about all the other atrocities and evils that weren’t part of the plan to eliminate European Jewry. Apparently, cutting through this tendency was Gilbert’s first, second and third priority. He probably succeeded, but that precluded producing a good history of the war. For me, that’s unfortunate. The book has its place, and a valuable one, but it misrepresents itself. It probably should have let the context of the war be more of a background to the book’s primary focus, allowing the author to both focus more on the atrocities and not pretend to be presenting a solid history of the war. I wouldn’t suggest this book to anyone who hasn’t read a couple other good histories of WWII. As a footnote, it does have many very good maps, which similar books often don’t have.
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