- Paperback: 940 pages
- Publisher: Random House Reference &; 1 edition (1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679770399
- ISBN-13: 978-0679770398
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 19 x 5.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,748,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Product Description
Here is the authoritative and comprehensive reference work on the last world war, from an American perspective. Published in hardcover in the midst of the 50th anniversary of various aspects of World War II, this ambitious work includes over 2,000 entries on military actions and battles, weapons, people, politics, culture, and everyday life, enlivened by quotes from the leaders of the day. The result is a complete military and social history of the time.test
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Second World War was the defining event that shaped the 20th century. Every major world power of the day participated, some siding with the Axis powers, most others taking up the Allied cause and a few even switched sides as the fortunes of war first favored one band, then the other. Over 50 million people, most of them civilians, died. Millions more were wounded, held captive, or rendered homeless by invasion and aerial bombardment. Nearly every European country became a battlefield, as well as North Africa, China, India, Southeast Asia and the vast reaches of the world's oceans. Its outcome -- Germany, Italy and Japan defeated, France and Britain relegated to second-rate powers as the United States and the Soviet Union gained superpower status, the beginning of the Cold War and the constant fear of a Third World War -- shaped the rest of the century and sowed some of the seeds of this new century's conflicts.
There are, of course, many reference books about World War II on the market, and Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen's World War II: America at War 1941-1945 is one of the best affordable volumes. With, as its cover blurb states, "more than 2,400 encyclopedic entries on battles, weapons, people, places, and events," this 1991 work is engrossing and informative.
America at War is divided into four main sections. First, the essay Prologue to War 1919-1941 sets the stage for history's worst conflict by explaining how the end of World War I, the various post-war revolutions all over Europe, the rise of ultra nationalist and dictatorial regimes in Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union, American isolationism, French and British pacifism, the Great Depression and other forces all contributed to the outbreak of war. The rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the Japanese militarists is charted, as are the various crises (the Spanish Civil War, Japan's incursions into China and Italy's invasion of Ethiopia) that culminated with the outbreak of what was first called the European War on Sept. 1, 1939, the day Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The essay briefly describes the war's first two years and concludes with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The second section is a 52-page long War Chronology that covers most of World War II, with an emphasis on American involvement. It is not a complete chronology (although there is a very rare and expensive day-by-day volume in existence); nevertheless, it's well written and informative.
The bulk of America at War is the War Guide A - Z. From "A: Japanese code name for the capture of Rabaul" to "Zyklon-B: Chemical used to produce lethal gas in Nazi death camps," over 2,400 entries on the personalities, weapons, political and strategic issues and, of course, battles of World War II in every theater (not just battles involving Americans, though the emphasis is on the war starting with American involvement. The entries are, on average, from one to three paragraphs in length, although a few items (such as the Pearl Harbor attack) take up two to four pages and often have maps or photographs.
In a book of such ambitious scope, errors will sometimes slip by. In one glaring case, the isolationist organization America First Committee is consistently mislabeled "American First." But on the whole the War Guide is impressively well researched and addictive; World War II buffs will find themselves going back and forth through the cross-referenced entries as they hunt for data on favorite aircraft, military commanders and specific battles or campaigns. There are even entries detailing the various levels of involvement in the war by Latin America and shedding light on the little-known and almost forgotten contributions of Brazil's Expeditionary Force in Italy and Mexico's Mexican Air Unit, a "squadron that flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and saw action in the Pacific."
The essay Epilogue to War 1946-1990 covers the period that the late President John F. Kennedy (whose war service is noted in the K section, as is his father's isolationist/defeatist stance as Ambassador to Great Britain from 1938 to 1940) called "a hard and bitter peace." The Cold War between East and West...the Arab-Israeli conflict...Vietnam... the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.... All of these were part of the legacy of World War II. It is a carefully crafted and revealing analysis of all the side effects the war left behind after the major powers ceased fire in 1945, and chronicles the rise and fall of the former Soviet Union and the emergence of the United States as the globe's remaining superpower, ending on a reflective yet carefully optimistic note.
This is a fine and valuable reference work not just for historians or World War II buffs, but for anyone who has an interest in the deeds and misdeeds that helped shape the world as we know it today, and especially for anyone who has a family connection to the dwindling "Greatest Generation" of Americans who served their country and helped save the world from tyranny.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
America at War is great reference book about WWII.....
22 Nov 2003
Format:Hardcover
The Second World War was the defining event that shaped the 20th century. Every major world power of the day participated, some siding with the Axis powers, most others taking up the Allied cause and a few even switched sides as the fortunes of war first favored one band, then the other. Over 50 million people, most of them civilians, died. Millions more were wounded, held captive, or rendered homeless by invasion and aerial bombardment. Nearly every European country became a battlefield, as well as North Africa, China, India, Southeast Asia and the vast reaches of the world's oceans. Its outcome -- Germany, Italy and Japan defeated, France and Britain relegated to second-rate powers as the United States and the Soviet Union gained superpower status, the beginning of the Cold War and the constant fear of a Third World War -- shaped the rest of the century and sowed some of the seeds of this new century's conflicts.
There are, of course, many reference books about World War II on the market, and Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen's World War II: America at War 1941-1945 is one of the best affordable volumes. With, as its cover blurb states, "more than 2,400 encyclopedic entries on battles, weapons, people, places, and events," this 1991 work is engrossing and informative.
America at War is divided into four main sections. First, the essay Prologue to War 1919-1941 sets the stage for history's worst conflict by explaining how the end of World War I, the various post-war revolutions all over Europe, the rise of ultra nationalist and dictatorial regimes in Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union, American isolationism, French and British pacifism, the Great Depression and other forces all contributed to the outbreak of war. The rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and the Japanese militarists is charted, as are the various crises (the Spanish Civil War, Japan's incursions into China and Italy's invasion of Ethiopia) that culminated with the outbreak of what was first called the European War on Sept. 1, 1939, the day Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The essay briefly describes the war's first two years and concludes with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The second section is a 52-page long War Chronology that covers most of World War II, with an emphasis on American involvement. It is not a complete chronology (although there is a very rare and expensive day-by-day volume in existence); nevertheless, it's well written and informative.
The bulk of America at War is the War Guide A - Z. From "A: Japanese code name for the capture of Rabaul" to "Zyklon-B: Chemical used to produce lethal gas in Nazi death camps," over 2,400 entries on the personalities, weapons, political and strategic issues and, of course, battles of World War II in every theater (not just battles involving Americans, though the emphasis is on the war starting with American involvement. The entries are, on average, from one to three paragraphs in length, although a few items (such as the Pearl Harbor attack) take up two to four pages and often have maps or photographs.
In a book of such ambitious scope, errors will sometimes slip by. In one glaring case, the isolationist organization America First Committee is consistently mislabeled "American First." But on the whole the War Guide is impressively well researched and addictive; World War II buffs will find themselves going back and forth through the cross-referenced entries as they hunt for data on favorite aircraft, military commanders and specific battles or campaigns. There are even entries detailing the various levels of involvement in the war by Latin America and shedding light on the little-known and almost forgotten contributions of Brazil's Expeditionary Force in Italy and Mexico's Mexican Air Unit, a "squadron that flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and saw action in the Pacific."
The essay Epilogue to War 1946-1990 covers the period that the late President John F. Kennedy (whose war service is noted in the K section, as is his father's isolationist/defeatist stance as Ambassador to Great Britain from 1938 to 1940) called "a hard and bitter peace." The Cold War between East and West...the Arab-Israeli conflict...Vietnam... the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.... All of these were part of the legacy of World War II. It is a carefully crafted and revealing analysis of all the side effects the war left behind after the major powers ceased fire in 1945, and chronicles the rise and fall of the former Soviet Union and the emergence of the United States as the globe's remaining superpower, ending on a reflective yet carefully optimistic note.
This (unfortunately) out of print book is a fine and valuable reference work not just for historians or World War II buffs, but for anyone who has an interest in the deeds and misdeeds that helped shape the world as we know it today, and especially for anyone who has a family connection to the dwindling "Greatest Generation" of Americans who served their country and helped save the world from tyranny.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
What a Great Resource
14 Dec 2001
Format:Hardcover
It is a sin that this book is out of print. I am a history major specializing in 20th Century America, yet I learn something new every time I open this book. Over 2,000 entries in this encyclopedia, many of the articles are quite detailed. Authors come to reasoned judgments about the most controversial episodes of the war -- responsibility for Pearl Harbor, execution of Private Slovik, etc. Keep your eyes open for this one at used book sales.
2 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Contains a gross misrepresentation but comprehensive nonetheless.
17 July 2006
Format:Hardcover
This book disappointed me on one issue, as it referred to the "European War," of 1939 to 1942, that preceded "World War Two." This is revisionism, pure and simple. It's simply glossing over the fact that the United States was late entering the war. The British Empire engaged the Nazi war machine on two continents and the Atlantic Ocean; Imperial Japan raped and pillaged its way across Asia and the Pacific.
The world was a war OK? There are many reasonable explanations for the US not entering the war earlier than December, 1941, but trying to gloss this over with a fabricated "European War" is something I would not expect from historians of Polmar and Allen's stature.
It pays, however, to note the title: America at War, and on that front it provides a comprehensive picture of the American role in liberating Western Europe and rolling back the Japanese empire to the shores of the home islands.
The world was a war OK? There are many reasonable explanations for the US not entering the war earlier than December, 1941, but trying to gloss this over with a fabricated "European War" is something I would not expect from historians of Polmar and Allen's stature.
It pays, however, to note the title: America at War, and on that front it provides a comprehensive picture of the American role in liberating Western Europe and rolling back the Japanese empire to the shores of the home islands.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
