The Story of World War II

Author: Donald L. Miller; Revised, expanded, and updated from the original text by Henry Steele Commanger

Narrator: Michael Kramer

Unabridged: 24 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Published: 08/06/2012

Categories: Nonfiction, History, Wars, World War Ii

Synopsis

Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought-and whose outcome was in greater doubt-than one might imagine. This is the war that Americans on the home front would have read about had they had access to the previously censored testimony of the soldiers on which Miller builds his gripping narrative. Miller covers the entire war-on land, at sea, and in the air-and provides new coverage of the brutal island fighting in the Pacific, the bomber war over Europe, the liberation of the death camps, and the contributions of African Americans and other minorities. He concludes with a suspenseful, never-before-told story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, based on interviews with the men who flew the mission that ended the war. Revised, expanded, and updated from the original text by Henry Steele Commanger "This is the book that deserves to be titled The Story of World War II...If you seek the book that best conveys the 'you are there' experience of history's greatest conflict, you hold that book in your hands."-James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author

Reviews

Goodreads review by Thomas on December 20, 2020

My rating here is really three and a half stars. This is a good book with some qualifications. I think a more accurate title for this book would be “The Story of America’s Involvement in World War II.” An attempt is made to include every part of the Second World War but it really is very heavily wei......more

Goodreads review by Morgan on March 04, 2015

This is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a book titled the Story of WWII. It's a broad compendium of the important events from the different theaters, major battles and important figures in WWII. Lots of cool little excerpts from the perspective of different political leaders, generals, fiel......more

Goodreads review by Adam on December 11, 2018

Review of the audiobook narrated by Michael Kramer. It's been over a year since I listened to this book but it is still one that I think about frequently, more so now (December 2018) that I'm in the middle of a book on World War I. This is one of the least reviewed books of any that I have read on Go......more

Goodreads review by Cav on January 16, 2025

"...This is a history not only about what happened but also about why it happened..." The Story of World War II was a well-done work; overall. Writing a single all-encompassing book on the most pivotal events of the 20th Century is no easy task. How do you balance telling the bird's eye overview of t......more

Goodreads review by Ben on July 19, 2017

"The Story of World War II" taught me a lot about the great war of nations. Great, of course, in the sense that even still it's hard to believe that the whole thing actually took place in a space in time, less than a hundred years ago. And that, though now few, there are survivors still with us to t......more