THE SECOND WORLD WAR: A COMPLETE HISTORY by Martin
Gilbert
Martin
Gilbert calls the book I read “THE SECOND WORLD WAR: A COMPLETE HISTORY” which is
a book that talks about every aspect of the war, its reasons, its development
and its outcome.
Martin Gilbert is one of
the most famous historians of the XX century; he was born in London in 1936,
studied in High gate School, graduated in Modern History and had many of his
work published.
The book talks about the
beginning of the war: it was during 1939, when Hitler was in the apogee of his
political career. On September 1st Germany invades Poland under an
operation called Blitzkrieg, it was a very bloody situation. This caused an
immediate war declaration from France and the British islands.
During this war there
was The Axis, which was made up of Italy, Japan and Germany. In Italy, the
leader was Benito Mussolini, In Japan Hirohito and in Germany, Adolf Hitler. On
the other side, there were the allies: the UK, under the control of the Queen
and the prime minister Winston Churchill, Russia, with Stalin, France and a
little later the US with Theodore Roosevelt.
The
participation of the US in the World War II
The morning of the 7th of
September an attack was made against the Pearl Harbor port by Japan, which was
a part of the US. This was a surprise and caused a lot of damage. The US was
neutral up until that point; after this attack an immediate invasion by the US
against Japan was ordered. This was how the United States got involved in the
war.
The battle of Stalingrad
It
was a conflict between Germany and Russia. It happened because they were
disputing over the control of the city of Stalingrad. It happened in August 23d
1943 and it is considered the bloodiest war ever. It was the easiest way to get
in Russia and that’s why the Germans wanted the city.
The outcome of the war
The allies won the war; there were really big
losses of human life, economy and infrastructure but Europe was freed from the
oppression of the German dictatorship.
The
United States and Russia weakened the German entry, allowing the Russians to
get inside of Germany. When the Russians enter Berlin the Germans already knew
they had lost the war. On April 30th 1955, when Hitler heard the
news about the Soviet Union taking over Berlin he decides to kill himself with
his wife. Germany gives up on May 8th 1945 losing the war; but this
doesn’t mean the war was over.
The
war continued in Japan until the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the
United States in August 15th 1945 leaving as a consequence the ONU,
the United States as a power, the making of new countries and the loss of
territory from Germany.
This war has
been one of the most remarkable and studied events in the human history;
because of it, our world prevails this way, the countries, the settlements, and
the organizations. A lot of what our world is now is due to what happened
during this war: the mistakes made, the results, the causes, the loss, the
gain.
I
personally find this topic to be very interesting but also devastating, because
when you look at it from a human point of view, not a historical one, you can
really see that this event was an abomination and it is because of wars and
disagreements like this that studying history is a very important thing because
of one thing: so that we learn from our mistakes.
I
really liked this book because it taught me a lot about political, economic and
social aspects of the world and the way everything used to be during this time,
it reminded me that there are always things that you don’t know a thing about
and how important it is to be open-minded, to read and to never stop learning.
In
general, this has been my favorite WWII book, because I have read some of them
since I really like the subject; and I think that this is by far the most
complete and the one that portrays better what was going on during the war and
the situation over-all. I thin Martin Gilbert is a very talented man who has
done a lot of amazing work during his life.
Bibliography
Gilbert,
Martin. The Second World War: A Complete History. New York: H. Holt,
1989. Print.
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