Warlords: Summary and book reviews of Warlords by Simon Berthon, plus links to an excerpt from Warlords and a biography of Simon Berthon.
Warlords An Extraordinary Re-Creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, And Stalin
by Simon Berthon, Joanna Potts
Hardcover: Mar 2006,
358 pages.
Paperback: Apr 2007,
384 pages.
A fascinating "you-are-there" look at World War II through the lives of Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin.
In a unique combination of innovative style and thorough scholarship, Warlords tells the story of World War II through the lives of the four great war leaders: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt. While their nations fought battles with weapons, the four warlords of the twentieth century fought a war of the mind. Structured along the lines of a cinematic thriller, rapidly cutting from one man to the next, the book takes us blow by blow as they try to outthink and outfight each other. These encounters are told on a day-by-day, even hour-by-hour basis, affording unparalleled insights into parallel actions.
Though there have been many single, and some dual, biographies, no previous book has put these four great figures together in this exciting and popularly appealing way. Moving from Whitehall and Washington to the Wolf's Lair and the Kremlin, Warlords documents the psychological battles among the leaders and shows how their thoughts and actions changed history.
The relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill is particularly fascinating. Today, they are usually portrayed as bosom-buddy allies, but the journal entries and eye-witness reports of the time portray a quite different relationship. In fact, it appears that Roosevelt considered Britain's imperial ambitions to be a greater threat than Stalin's, and considered Stalin the sort of person that he could do business with. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Kirkus Reviews
Reasonably good as a big-picture overview, except that the picture is so much bigger.
Booklist - Gilbert Taylor
This focus on personality brings out, for example, Stalin’s colossal miscalculation about Hitler, and effects an appreciation in a general audience for directions the war took that were influenced by the psychology of the top leaders—always a reliable hook for popular history.
Publishers Weekly
The scholarship is solid—so solid that readers convinced WWII was less squalid than other wars may be provoked to reconsider.
Library Journal
...a lively narrative that shifts quickly from scene to scene, taking the reader along for the ride.
Joanna Potts received a First Class degree in Historical Studies from
the University of Bristol. While at university Joanna specialized in the
study of Soviet Russia, concentrating particularly on the years 1917-1953. She
also undertook in-depth research into Europe and the Second World War,
completing a comprehensive study of Anthony Eden and Winston Churchill during the war years.
Simon Berthon, described by the Daily Telegraph as a “formidable
Second World War historian”, is one of Britain’s most distinguished writers and
producers of television history. His previous book was Allies at War, on
the bitter-sweet relationship between Churchill, Roosevelt and de Gaulle.
Margaret MacMillan, an acclaimed historian and “great storyteller” (The New York Review of Books), explores here the many ways in which history – its values and dangers – affects us all, including how it is used and abused.
This hilarious account of Khrushchev's 1959 U.S. tour is also a supremely entertaining evocation of the history and atmosphere of Cold War America
These are 2 of the 9 readalike suggestions for Warlords. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
read more
Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
read more
Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
read more
British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales.(May 20 2013) Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate...
Full Story
BookBrowse
(532 words).
Kirkus Reviews
