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Review
"This is the book he was born to write: a work of staggering scope and erudition, narrated with supreme fluency and insight, it is unquestionably the best single-volume history of the war ever written!.. he writes with a wonderfully clear, unsentimental eye!!and has a terrific grasp of the grand sweep and military strategy!!But what makes his book a compelling read are the human stories!!at the end of this gruesome, chilling but quite magnificent book, you never doubt that the war was worth fighting". Sunday Times "No other general history of the war amalgamates so successfully the gut-wrenching personal details and the essential strategic arguments. Melding the worm's eye view and the big picture is a difficult trick to pull of -- but Hastings has triumphed". The Times "majestic!it is impossible to emerge without a sense of the sheer scale of human tragedy!..To gather all these anecdotes together is a task in itself, but to assemble them in a way that makes sense is something entirely different!.Hastings shapes all these stories, almost miraculously, into a single coherent narrative". Daily Telegraph "In this massive work, the crowning volume of the 10 impressive books he has written about the Second World War, Sir Max Hastings spares us nothing in portraying the sheer bloody savagery of the worst war that the world has yet seen!.this magnificent book!.is hypnotically readable from the first page to the last". Sunday Telegraph "a fast-moving, highly readable survey of the entire war!Hastings combines a mastery of the military events with invariably sound judgment and a sharp eye for unusual telling detail!.this is military history at its most gripping. Of all Max Hastings's valuable books, this is possibly his best -- a veritable tour de force". Evening Standard
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
A magisterial history of the greatest and most terrible event in history, from one of the finest historians of the Second World War. A book which shows the impact of war upon hundreds of millions of people around the world- soldiers, sailors and airmen; housewives, farm workers and children. Reflecting Max Hastings's thirty-five years of research on World War II, All Hell Let Loose describes the course of events, but focuses chiefly upon human experience, which varied immensely from campaign to campaign, continent to continent. The author emphasises the Russian front, where more than 90% of all German soldiers who perished met their fate. He argues that, while Hitler's army often fought its battles brilliantly well, the Nazis conducted their war effort with 'stunning incompetence'. He suggests that the Royal Navy and US Navy were their countries' outstanding fighting services, while the industrial contribution of the United States was much more important to allied victory than that of the US Army. The book ranges across a vast canvas, from the agony of Poland amid the September 1939 Nazi invasion, to the 1943 Bengal famine, in which at least a million people died under British rule- and British neglect. Among many vignettes, there are the RAF's legendary raid on the Ruhr dams, the horrors of Arctic convoys, desert tank combat, jungle clashes. Some of Hastings's insights and judgements will surprise students of the conflict, while there are vivid descriptions of the tragedies and triumphs of a host of ordinary people, in uniform and out of it. 'The cliche is profoundly true', he says. 'The world between 1939 and 1945 saw some human beings plumb the depths of baseness, while others scaled the heights of courage and nobility'. This is 'everyman's story', an attempt to answer the question: 'What was the Second World War like ?', and also an overview of the big picture. Max Hastings employs the technique which has made many of his previous books best-sellers, combining top-down analysis and bottom-up testimony to explore the meaning of this vast conflict both for its participants and for posterity.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gripping account of WW II,
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This review is from: All Hell Let Loose: The Experience Of War 1939-1945 (Hardcover)
This is one of the best books ever written about WW II. Max Hasting is not only a good journalist with very strong opinions; he is also a fine historian and writer. I was concerned that there was not much that has not been written yet about WW II, and that I would not learn anything new by reading this book. But Max Hasting has succeeded in bringing a new perspective of WW II.Max Hasting has strong opinions and does not hesitate to correct many of the commonly accepted perceptions of the war. His loathing of the French is not baseless, but a bit extreme. He is contemptuous of the too many prima donna generals who were more concerned with building their image than conducting war. This opinion is not only limited to generals such as McArthur, Rommel, Zhukhov, or Montgomery, but also includes Yugoslavia's communist leader Tito whose image was brilliantly built by British propaganda. He has respect for the endurance and fighting power of the German army, but only contempt for the complete moral abdication of the German generals. WW II was the climax of a century marked by destruction and violence. All the technology and the industrial might of the countries at war were geared at making more powerful weapons of destruction. The firebombing of cities became a science and the war ended with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Such destructive power had never been used before. Machines were made and used to kill people. But this war was fought by people, and it was fought brutally against people. The Nazis had planned to starve to death millions of Russians; they made the extermination of the Jewish people an industry. The war brought death and starvation throughout the world. When millions of Indians died of starvation during the Bengal famine because of poor management of overstretched resources, Churchill and the British government were astoundingly indifferent to the plight of the people of Bengal. This must be remembered even though it was not the empire's finest hour. This book includes many testimonies from soldiers who fought, from people who died, and people who survived, from people of Leningrad and people of Berlin. This book gives a gripping account of this war where all hell let loose.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Previously unknown stories from the Second World War,
This review is from: All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945 (Paperback)
When I first heard an interview with this author on a podcast, I thought, as a senior citizen, I had heard everything about the Second World War. After all, I had lived through it. But after listening to Max Hastings talk about his research of documents and especially about the letters written from young men and women during the war, I was very moved by the intense feelings expressed in their letters and diaries. He also reveals a lot of statistics that when put together in this manner, gives one a different picture of the horror and agony suffered by untold millions.Max Hastings covers a wide spectrum from both the Allies and the Axis experiences. Yes, I would recommend this book, especially for anyone who remembers the war or has heard relatives tell their stories.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
All Hell Let Loose,
By
This review is from: All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945 (Paperback)
All Hell Let Loose has given me a new perspective on WWll and the role of the Western World. The writing conveys the tenseness and drama of WWll as no other book I have read. Every student of history should put this book on a "must read" list.
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