There is a vast amount of literature on World War II, particularly official publications and memoirs. Among notable personal accounts are Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (1948, repr. 1951); Omar H. Bradley, A Soldier's Story (1951, repr. 1970); Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War (6 vol., 1948–54); Harry S. Truman, Memoirs (2 vol., 1955–56); Field Marshal Montgomery, Memoirs (1958); Charles de Gaulle, Complete War Memoirs (1964, repr. 1967); Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences (1964); Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (1970).
See also H. R. Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler (1956); W. L. Shirer,
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960); A. J. P.
Taylor, Origins of the Second World War (1961, repr. 1963);
S. E. Morison, Two-Ocean War (1963); A. R. Buchanan,
The United States and World War II (1964); A. Bullock,
Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (rev. ed. 1964); B. Collier,
The Second World War (1967, repr. 1969) and The
War in the Far East, 1941–1945 (1969); B. H. Liddell
Hart, History of the Second World War (1970); P.
Calvocoressi and G. Wint, Total War (1972); M. Fourcade,
Noah's Ark (tr. 1974); H. Michel, The Second
World War (tr. 1974); J. Erickson, The Road to
Stalingrad (1975) and The Road to Berlin
(1983); M. Hastings, Overlord (1984), Armageddon:
The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945 (2004),
Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944–45
(2008), and Inferno: The World at War, 1939–1945
(2011); R. Spector, Eagle against the Sun (1984); O.
Bartov, The Eastern Front, 1941–45 (1985); M.
Gilbert, The Second World War (rev. ed. 1991); S. Hynes et
al., ed., Reporting World War II (2 vol., 1995); R. J.
Overy, Why the Allies Won (1997); M. Beschloss, The
Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler's
Germany (2002); A. Schom, The Eagle and the Rising Sun:
The Japanese-American War, 1941–1943 (2004); E. Yellin,
Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front during
World War II (2004); T. Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy:
Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan (2005); B. Shepherd,
War in the Wild East (2005) and The Long Road
Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War (2011); C.
Merridale, Ivan's War (2006); R. Atkinson, The
Liberation Trilogy (3 vol., 2007–13); N. Baker,
Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of
Civilization (2008); A. Roberts, The Storm of
War (2009, repr. 2012); J. Bodnar, The “Good
War” in American Memory (2010); I. Kershaw, The
End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany,
1944–1945 (2011); A. Roberts, The Storm of War:
A New History of the Second World War (2011); I. W. Toll,
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific,
1941–1942 (2011), The Conquering Tide: War in
the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944 (2015), and
Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific,
1944–1945 (2020); A. Beevor, The Second World
War (2012); I. Buruma, Year Zero: A History of
1945 (2013); E. Hotta, Japan 1941: Countdown to
Infamy (2013); R. Overy, The Bombers and the Bombed:
Allied Air War over Europe, 1940–1945 (2014); N.
Stargardt, The German War: A Nation under Arms,
1939–1945 (2015); R. Overy, Blood and Ruins: The
Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 (2022).
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Wars and Battles