An Important History

Norman Davies is a historian of honesty, truth, and a willingness to look at all sides of the picture. This book gives you a complete view of World War II in Europe. It is an important listen/read for all of us—so that we can understand the past fully, and not just from a single narrative. Davies explores the conflict from beginning to end, from the events of militaries and civilians, West and East, criminals and the righteous, and victors and slaves. Truth is essential, whether or not we like it or whether or not it fits with our preconceived or well ingrained notions. Davies tells the truth of the war in Europe.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Not your high school history lesson

No Simple Victory takes the you beyond The Greatest Generation and Anglo-centric history of the second world war. It looks at the Eastern front and the soviet role. The Nazi Reich was evil but it was not the only evil in the world. This books takes an objective look at all sides and the decisions that were made. There is a particular emphasis on Stalin and the Soviet forces, especially how their conduct was often as bad if not worse than the Nazi's.
History is written by the winners but that isn't always the end of the story, the author looks deeper and tells some uncomfortable truths.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

Stalin as the "star" of WW2

Norman Davies has a point and you won't be able to escape it in this book. Stalin was as bad as Hitler. Maybe genocide is worse than just plain old killing but the body counts are similar. Davies isn't denying anything about the holocaust but he wants us to know about the gulags too. And while he is telling you about how bad Stalin is he also wants us to know that the Allies could not have won the war without the USSR.
But why should you read yet another history of WWII? First, the breakup of the USSR led to the release of many documents from the Stalin era. Second, in the U.S. we get a very filtered, even biased view of the war. Third, Simon Vance's energy as the narrator never falters through the 20 hours of narration.
The author says D-Day wasn't among the top 10 battles of the war. The battle of Kursk was the most decisive. He talks about issues that are rarely mentioned: the effect of the war on civilian women, the Warsaw uprising, the impact on children, the terrible price a community paid if one side or the other decided that it would hold the line there.
Is this book for you? Do you know about the Katyn massacre? If not, google it and see if you aren't interested in learning more. Are you someone who reads history with a critical/skeptical eye? Norman Davies is your guy.
I normally deduct one star for a non-fiction book that is not read by the author himself, unless he/she has some really good excuse like being dead. But I found this book from an Audible listing of narrator choices so I can't deduct this time. At least Simon Vance has the same accent as Davies (I'm presuming).
The reason I can't give this a 5 star review is that it is a bit hard to follow as an audible book. This material is not presented in chronological order, more like a loop that goes back again and again for more detail or another viewpoint. Also, this is not just a history book, far from it. It is also a critique of how history is written and that is probably this book's strongest point.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

More of a Reference Book

I made it all the way through the book and learned a great deal I never knew or suspected about World War II so I'm glad I did. Despite the always-fantastic narration by Simon Vance, the book reads more like an encyclopedia or a reference book than a novel or even a historical book. If you are a true WWII buff I would think you would the hardcopy of this book so you can thumb through it and look up the topics that interest you. If you are more of a casual historian (as I am) it can be tough to make it through but it's definitely worthwhile. Note that the author minimizes the U.S.'s role in the war and role in bringing the war to victory. His position is well-substantiated but some Americans might find that viewpoint off-putting or even painful.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Facts and figures galore

This book is for anyone that wants to know the real facts and figures on WWII. Especially the figures.

What a masterpiece that is also extremely well read by the narrator.

Buy it. Unless you do not like (the real) details you will not be disappointed.........

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

No words can describe the inhumanity

My dad was in WW 2 and would NEVER talk about it, after listening to this book I know why. It is hard for me to wrap my brain around what took place. The numbers quoted in this book are staggering! The torture incomprehensible!
I keep thinking about the protesters complaining about the U.S. using water boarding!!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Balanced and well-crafted

Comprehensive coverage of WW2 in Europe. In addition to the standard fare, the author does a nice job comparing and contrasting the Soviet and Nazi repression and atrocities. He also discusses many interesting side issues..from wartime poetry to the experience of Poles who made it from the Gulags to India and then service with the British.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

Great overview of World War 2, but ...

In terms of books on World War 2 No Simple Victory is unique in that it is not just a description of the battles of the war but rather a look at how the war affected all aspects of society. The battles of the war are described, but occupy probably less than 10 percent of the book while the rest of the book describes the belligerent societies and examines how the war affected those people and societies. A complete list of the topics covered would be too extensive for this review, but subjects include politics, arts, documentaries, movies, books, military discipline, civilian police, prisons, POW camps, military intelligence, secret projects, partisan warfare, heroic and non-heroic actions and much, much more. It is the most complete look at how the war affected the period of World War 2 and beyond that I have ever read and, as such, it is unparalleled in its scope and completeness and no other book I have read approaches it. The writing conveys the importance of each of the subjects covered, the book never loses its central theme and I was never bored. It is simply a wonderful book about an important subject, but is not without its flaws.

The first is that it assumes that the reader has no knowledge of the character of the main political figures, or of their systems. A large part of beginning of the book is spent describing why Stalin was as big a monster as Hitler, and why the Soviet Union was as much a totalitarian system as that of Nazi Germany, but anyone who has spent any time reading about the period from the Russian Revolution to the Cold War should already know about the Soviet Gulags, The Terror of the 1930s, the random arrests and killings, the political purges and the baseless accusations that were part of normal life in the Soviet Union under Stalin. It seems a waste of space and time to repeat what is probably common knowledge at such great length for those who would read a book like this one.

The second is that Mr Davies, as a historian, seems almost obsessed with the idea that museums, monuments, and other displays concerning the war should address the war in its entirety rather than just the local interest in the war. While I understand why a historian would believe this, Mr Davies seems to take no notice of the fact that people are most interested in that part of the war that directly affected them, their family, those that they know, or the location where they are at the time. Americans are more interested in how the war affected America than how it affected Poland, the French are more interested in how the war affected France and so on. A visitor to St Petersburg in Russia can visit a war memorial which describes the long siege of the city during the war, but which does not describe any of the other battles in the then Soviet Union, and all of this is normal. While a museum dedicated to the war in its entirety is certainly a worthy endeavor, people are most concerned about things that directly or indirectly affect them, and that is only to be expected. Mr Davies spends far too much time berating people for behavior that is normal.

The third is that this book describes the war in Europe only, and does not even touch on the war in the Pacific except when it is absolutely essential. It is not the fact that the book is about the European theater of the war that is bothersome, but that Mr Davies’ concentration on Europe causes him to make statements that seem misleading. For example he discusses how the Soviet Union fielded many more troops than the US in proportion to the population, but discounts the entire US war effort int he Pacific which tied up enormous amounts of both men and materiel. One of the reasons that the US landing in Normandy only involved about 150,000 troops on D-Day is that both men and landing craft were also needed in the Pacific and they could not be in two places at the same time. Another is that the enormous amount of war materiel that the US was producing for the Allies required that a large number of people had to work in the armaments industry and thus were not soldiers, sailors or airmen.

This list is not complete - there are other ares that I found mildly annoying - but this book is the best overall view of the European Theater of the war that I have ever read and I would not want this review to imply otherwise. The narration is superb, the subject matter important and the overall conclusions of the book essential to understanding the war. Highly recommended, but with some noted caveats.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

Fascinating

Such an interesting book and an excellent job of narrating it by Simon Vance. In this book, Norman Davies has no problem looking at the facts and stories to show just how oppressive the Soviet party was. I would recommend this book to any reader (or listener as the case may be) who is interested in a new perspective of World War II history. Well worth the money!

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

The Crime Explained

Now here is what Americans need to understand about our glorious Victory of 1945. The details in this history of the 1940s war are necessary knowledge. Our entire National WW2 Myth needs to be refreshed with some deeper understanding. What do you think when you see FDR and Churchill and Stalin all hanging out together smiling and laughing? What if it was Hitler they were hanging out with in all of those pictures from those big Conferences? Would it make a difference if it was Stalin or Hitler? Why? Did the U.S. fight the right war? Should the U.S. have been involved with any of these people to begin with? Just why the hell did England declare war on Germany again? And then look who they let wind up with Poland when it was all over! Would I be wrong to advocate that the U.S. should have made peace with Germany and team up to bring all of its force to bear on the USSR? Why? Whats the difference? Do body counts matter? - because let me tell you WW2 was no simple victory - was it victory? What did 1945 do to this country? Was the U.S. really the ally of the world's bloodiest mass murderer?

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful