Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With its mercurial and deluded leaders, dramatic offensives, and technological leaps, the history of WWII is riddled with might-have-beens that are amply explored in this stimulating collection of scholarly essays. The authors, mainly academic historians including Carlo d'Este and David Glantz, ask the big questions, pondering the likely consequences if Britain had surrendered, Hitler had been killed by conspirators, the D-Day landings had failed, or the atom bomb not been dropped. But finer points of strategy (what if the Allies had invaded Sardinia instead of Sicily?) and weapons procurement (would more V2s and jet fighters have turned the tide for Germany?) also get considered attention. A few authors present clunky fictional narratives of the "Stalin nervously paced his apartment" variety, but most stick to sober analyses of the alternatives that leaders faced. From the welter of contingencies emerges an inevitable end that miracle weapons and brilliant generalship could not alter: once America entered the war, Germany and Japan's chances against a vastly stronger Allied coalition slipped from slim to none. These illuminating, well-written counterfactual essays do much to explain why. Maps. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Historians love to play "what if." Who doesn't? Here, 19 eminent historians riff on various outcomes. What if the United States had read Japanese codes early enough to forestall Pearl Harbor? What if Hitler had captured Moscow? Skillfully written, this makes for absorbing reading, if ultimately just fantasy. Likely to be a popular addition to any military history collection. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
