Why the Allies Won
by Richard Overy
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard OveryEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-05-17
ISBN: 039331619X
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of Why the Allies Won
Book Review: A Masterpiece of Synthesis
Summary: 5 Stars
In this very successful and widely praised book, written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, Richard Overy has managed to synthesise a vast range of subjects and data into a relatively short and convincing account of why the Allies eventually won. The book is useful both to those new to the subject and to those who may too know too much about it and need something more analytical to tie things together. To describe the book in summary terms, Professor Overy identifies the critical points of the conflict (Stalingrad and Kursk, the war in the Atlantic, the bombing of Germany and the invasion of Normandy), and shows how the Allies prevailed in each, often by the skin of their teeth. Overy rightly points out the centrality of Germany to most of the Allied participants in the war (according to Overy, the US spent 85% of its effort on Germany and only 15% on Japan and the numbers are even more lopsided for the USSR and Britain). Long before Germany fell, the much more backward economy of Japan was in shambles and its fighting capabilities destroyed. The famous American island battles against the Japanese used a fraction of the troops and weapons used against the Germans. Later, the author goes on to identify certain key themes and show how the Allies and Axis differed in their approaches to them - for example, in the organisation of industrial technology, the nature of political leadership, and the moral aspects of the war. One comes away from the book sobered by just how great the expenditure in lives and treasure was on both sides, how the eventual outcome was far from being inevitable, and how mind-bogglingly large the scale of the conflict was. A fine work of scholarship and synthesis, and one that gives the reader a lot to think about.
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