The Storm of War (Unabridged)
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4.5 • 19 Ratings
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- £18.99
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- £18.99
Publisher Description
‘Russian success has been somewhat aided by the strategy of Herr Hitler, of Corporal Hitler… Even military idiots find it difficult not to see some faults in his actions.’
–Winston Churchill (2 August 1944, in the wake of the complete destruction of the German Army Group Centre in Belorussia)
Here is one of the best-selling history titles of 2009. Examining the Second World War on every front, Andrew Roberts asks whether, with a different decision-making process and a different strategy, Hitler’s Axis might even have won.
Were those German generals who blamed everything on Hitler after the war correct, or were they merely scapegoating their former Führer once he was safely beyond defending himself? In researching this uniquely vivid history of the Second World War, Roberts has walked many of the key battlefield and wartime sites of Russia, France, Italy, Germany, and the Far East.
The book is full of illuminating sidelights on the principle actors that bring their characters and the ways in which they reached decisions into fresh focus.
Andrew Roberts’s Masters and Commanders was one of the most acclaimed, best-selling history books of 2008. His previous books include Salisbury: Victorian Titan (1999), which won the Wolfson History Prize and the James Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction, and Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership (2003), which coincided with a four-part BBC2 history series. He is one of Britain's most prominent journalists and broadcasters.
Customer Reviews
Tour de force
I've long been hoping for an indepth history of all WWII in audiobook format. I'm happy to say that Storm of War is exactly what I've been looking for. Great analysis of all the major conflicts and, at £8.95 for over 28 hours of audio it's absolutely great value. I've purchased in the region of 50-60 audiobooks and this would easily be in my top 5. Highly recommended for anyone who'd like a well written, well narrated WWII history on their ipod.
Overview without dumbing down the subject.
This is an excellent overview of the war without dumbing down the subject matter. The book successfully brings the history of the war to life with vignettes from individual witnesses set against the backdrop of the grand stategic issues of the day. The narrator manages to bring the text to life and engage the listener in a way that sadly so many do not. I particularly enjoyed listening to the narrator, he was able to skillfully use his voice to bring out something of the personality of historical figure being discussed. Highly recommended.
Great Book, Unfortunate Narration
First of all, the book is great, the best overview of the Second World War I've read - comprehensive, fair and full of wry insights and observations.
I'm usually an admirer of Christian Rodska's narration of audiobooks, especially Linsey Davis's Falco novels. The only problem here is that he puts on accents for every quote in the text, and there are a lot of quotes. So, British generals all sound public school, Americans sound like they belong in a Raymond Chandler novel, and Russians sound dangerously close to Ensign Chekhov in Star Trek. In the end I found it spoiled my enjoyment, because I was always tense, waiting for the next impersonation of Churchill to come along...
This is just a personal preference - it doesn't affect the quality of the book, nor am I saying that it's a bad narration - but I found it a bit distracting, and I guess what works in fiction doesn't always work for me in non-fiction.