WORLD WAR TWO

Norman Stone is one of Britains greatest historians. His major works include The Eastern Front 19141917 (winner of the Wolfson Prize and published by Penguin) Europe Transformed and The Atlantic and Its Enemies (published by Penguin). He has taught at the universities of Cambridge Oxford and Bilkent where he is now Director of the TurkishRussian Centre. He lives in Ankara.Professor Norman Stone has achieved the impossible: he has somehow written a comprehensive history of the Second World War in just under 200 pages summarising the entire conflict while leaving out nothing of importance and bringing his lifetime of study of the subject to bear in a witty incisive and immensely readable way ... Norman Stone has proved yet again that he is one of the most original witty and powerful British historians writing todayThe joy and strength of this compact history besides its trenchancy and in the publishers words the sceptical and humorous intelligence at work is its narrative clarity ... a book to clear the mindNovices will receive a painless introduction but educated readers should not pass up the highly opinionated prologue and epilogue and the authors trademark acerbic commentary throughout ... Readers of all stripes ... will find plenty to ponderA pacy compelling and penetrating account from the great Norman StoneThe best short primer on the war in twenty years Andrew RobertsNorman Stones gripping book tells the narrative of the Second World War in as brief a compass as possible making a sometimes familiar story utterly fresh and arresting. As with his highly acclaimed World War One: A Short History there is a compelling sense of a terrible story unfolding of a sceptical and humorous intelligence at work and a wish to convey to an audience who may well have no memory of the conflict just how high the stakes were.