At the end of his book, The Second World War
, John Keegan offers a list of 50 books in English that “together provide a comprehensive picture of the most important events and themes of the war, which are readable and from which the general reader can derive his own picture of the war as a guide to deeper reading.” Keegan admits this list is not all inclusive and it reflects his interests. For example, there is no book on the invasion of Poland in 1939.
The list is nearly 20 years old, but it is still valuable to those researching World War II. Some of these books are out-of-print, but most of them are readily available and have been republished several times which means Keegan put together a quality list.
1. The West Point Atlas of American Wars, Vol 2 by Colonel Vincent J. Esposito is the first book listed. Amazon has both volumes listed under The West Point Atlas of American Wars. 2 Volume Set
The books have detailed maps of all campaigns, not just the ones involving Americans.
Hitler and Nazi Germany
2. Keegan recognizes Hitler A Study In Tyranny
by Alan Bullock as the “best biography of Hitler.”
3. Hitler’s War and the War Path
by David Irving is an interesting recommendation by Keegan. The book has been criticized for years as being “pro-Hitler”, yet Keegan recognizes it as one of the most import books on the time period. In a later book, Keegan acknowledges the criticisms of the book, but he also says it “is unique in that it recounts the war exclusively from the German side.” Irving’s portrayal of Hitler is that of a man trying to do the best for his country. Keegan sees value in the book because of Irving’s work “in all the major German archives,” interviews with many survivors, and personal discovery of important documents. The major flaw Keegan sees in the book is “it is untouched by moral judgment.”
4. The German Army and the Nazi Party, 1933-1939
by Robert O’Neill
5. Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939-45
by Walter Warlimont, one of Hitler’s operation officers.
6. Inside the Third Reich
by Albert Speer, Hitler’s armaments minister from 1942.
7. Hitler’s War Directives 1939-1945 by Hugh Trevor-Roper lists approximately 80 major war directives given by Hitler starting with the invasion plans for Poland in 1939 to the last stand of the Reich in 1945.
8. The Last Days of Hitler
by Trevor-Roper
Beginnings and Early Battles
9. Keegan says that although The Origins of The Second World War
by A. J. P. Taylor is contentious, it “cannot be bettered as an introduction to that subject.” In a later book, Keegan described Taylor as a “notorious controversialist.”
10. To Lose a Battle: France 1940
by Alistair Horne
11. Why France Fell: The defeat of the French Army in 1940
by Guy Chapman
12. Parades and Politics at Vichy
by Robert Paxton
13. The Breaking Wave: The Second World War in the Summer of 1940
by Telford Taylor
14. Hitler’s Strategy 1940-1941: The Balkan Clue
by Martin van Creveld
15. The Struggle for Crete
by I. M. G. Stewart, a medical officer of one of the British battalions in the battle.
16. The Desert Generals
by Correlli Barnett
The War in the East
17. Keegan describes The Soviet High Command
and the following two books by John Erickson as “overthrowing all other writers in English on the war in the east.”
18. The Road to Stalingrad by John Erickson
19. The Road to Berlin
by John Erickson
20. German Rule in Russia
by Alexander Dallin
21. Comrades in Arms: British Aid to Russia 1941-1945
by Joan Beaumont
Britain’s Strategy On Its Own
22. The Continental Commitment
by Michael Howard
23. The Mediterranean Strategy in the Second World War
by Michael Howard
Anglo-American Strategy
24. Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1941-1942
by Maurice Matloff
25. Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943-1944
by Maurice Matloff
26. Command Decisions
by Kent Roberts Greenfield
Code Cracking and Intelligence
27. British Intelligence in the Second World War
by F. H. Hinsley
28. The Hut Six Story
by Gordon Welchman
29. Ultra Goes to War by Ronald Lewin
30. The American Magic
by Ronald Lewin
31. Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre 1939-1945
by Patrick Beesly
32. Ultra in the West
by R. Bennett
The War in the Pacific
33. A History of Modern Japan
by Richard Storry
34. Empires in the Balance: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942 by H. P. Willmott
35. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan
by Ronald Spector
36. Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions, May 1942-August 1942
by Samuel Elliot Morison
37. Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain and the War Against Japan, 1941-1945
by Christopher Thorne
Wartime Economies and Efforts to Disrupt
38. War, Economy and Society, 1939-1945
by Alan Milward
39. The Design and Development of Weapons
by M. M. Postan
40. Keegan values Bomber Command
by Max Hasting “for its study of the effects of the campgain both on the Germans and crews who took part.”
41. Donitz: The Last Fuhrer
by Peter Padfield
The North-West Europe Campgain
42. Keegan credits The Struggle for Europe by Chester Wilmot for effectively inventing “the modern method of writing contemporary military history, which combines political, economic and strategic analysis with eye-witness accounts of combat.” While Keegan admits that some of Wilmot’s judgements are no longer valid, he believes the book remains “the supreme acheivement of Second World War historiography.”
Resistence and Life Under Nazi Rule
43. The Shadow War: European Resistance, 1939-1945
Michel
44. The Embattled Mountain
by F. W. Deakin
45. Life with the Enemy: Collaboration and Resistance in Hitler’s Europe, 1939-1945
by Werner Rings
46. The Final Solution
by Gerald Reitlinger
Personal Memoirs
47. Keegan is “haunted” by With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E. B. Sledge which he labels one of the “most arresting documents in war literature.” Sledge writes of his experience growing up, going to war, and attempting to remain civilized while everyone around him became savages.
48. Wartime
by Milovan Djilas
49. Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945
by Marie Vassiltchikov
50. The Past is Myself
by Christabel Bielenberg
References
Keegan, John. The Battle For History: Re-Fighting World War II
. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
Keegan, John. The Second World War. New York: Viking, 1990.
Footnotes
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I’d add to the list:
Melita Maschmann, ‘Account Rendered.’ This is probably the most significant personal memoir to come out if the war — if not the most celebrated. Melita Maschmann became an enthusiastic Nazi as an adolescent and led groups of Volksdeutsche as they were resettled in Poland. Extremely illuminating in a number of respects.
William Manchester, ‘Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War.’ Despite the title, this isn’t exactly a memoir. Manchester did finally see combat briefly but horrifically at Okinawa, but he was also an extremely good historical writer, and he brilliantly combines what amounts to a history of the Marines in the Pacific from Tarawa to Okinawa with his own personal progression towards the front.
Mark Mazower, ‘Hitler’s Empire.’ From the relatively rational and measured exploitation of the West to the wild, wild East. Mazower is lucid and more interested in illumination than condemnation. In a sorely understudied field, this is a masterpiece.
Robert Paxton, ‘Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order.’ I believe this supersedes and expands on the above-listed ‘Parades and Politics’ by the same author. An unblinking look at Vichy that emphasizes the continuities both with the Third Republic and post-war France. Particularly valuable if read in conjunction with Mazower, which offers more detailed material on the economic exploitation of France.
Rick Atkinson, ‘An Army at Dawn.’ Oh, this is a joy to read. The American army in Tunisia: rookies come to bat. The sequel, ‘The Day of Battle,’ covering the first year or so of the Italian campaign is good, but perhaps not quite as good. Atkinson’s technique of history as a montage of individual experiences works well on the relatively sparsely peopled canvas of the Tunisian campaign — starts to buckle under the strain as more divisions are added.
Anthony Mockler, ‘Our Enemies the French.’ Mockler covers the little-known but quite bloody Syrian campaign of 1941. He is avowedly and somewhat irritatingly casual: no footnotes, and no bibliography, and he did that intentionally. However, there’s nothing else that covers this grossly neglected campaign in anything like the same detail — and Mockler can write, even if he refuses to consider himself a serious historian.
I.S.O. Playfair’s four volumes on North Africa and the Middle East in the British official history. I’m at somewhat of a loss as to why Keegan omitted these. They are comprehensive, perceptive, and well-written. Quite appropriately, the emphasis is on the trials and tribulations of the Commonwealth forces rather than their enemies, and while Playfair takes a fairly pro-British tack on all things, he manages to be reasonably fair. Irreplaceable. Really, British military historical writing at its finest. I habitually turn to these volumes as references — and always find myself happily reading on for hours.
Roderick Braithewaite. ‘Moscow: a City at War.’ This graceful volume is one of the few examples of the War in the East told with an eye to what it was like for at least one group of typical Russians. Braithewaite recounts the events of 1941 as they impacted Moscow. The early days. The Moscow Militia divisions marching out to be immolated at Vyazma. The morning Radio Moscow played a German military march without any explanation — ever.