Martin Gilbert

"The Second World War surpassed all previous wars in the sheer cost of many millions of lives, the majority of them civilian. It left a world reeling from physical destruction on a scale never experience before or since, and from the psychological traumas of loss, of imprisonment and genocide, and permanent exile from home.". "In this short book, Joanna Bourke turns an unblinking eye on the events and outcomes in the vast number of places where the war was fought: throughout Western and Central Europe, on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union, in the Pacific, in Africa, in Asia. She shows where the strategic decisions came from and how they were implemented. In addition to the facts of this global conflict, she details the human, individual cost. Through diary entries and recorded oral history, we experience how ordinary people felt when they witnessed or heard of events, from the declaration of war on the radio to the mass murders carried out by Nazi soldiers in Russian villages." "Our understanding of the past conflict and our own age of violence and human atrocity into which the Second World War thrust us will be greatly enhanced by the scope and detail of this book."--BOOK JACKET.

"This volume relates Winston Churchill's story from January through July 1945. During these seven months, Churchill travelled 10,000 miles, wrote more than 1,400 pieces of correspondence, and delivered over two dozen speeches. He attended the Yalta Conference with Stalin and Roosevelt, and he then dealt with the political ramifications of the latter's death. He saw the defeat of Nazi Germany and the drawing shut of the Iron Curtain. He met with Stalin and Truman at Potsdam, but returned to England before the conference's end following his loss in the July 5 General Election to Labour candidate Clement Attlee. These stories are known and preserved by Churchill's letters, telegrams, minutes, and speeches. This volume contains that record."

Maps and accompanying prints and photographs present a survey of Jerusalem's 3,000 year history, with emphasis on the last 150 years.

On 1 July 1916, more than 90 years ago, thousands and thousands of young men rose from their trenches near the River Somme in France and came face to face with death. The Battle of the Somme may be one of the bloodiest battles of one of the bloodiest wars since time began. On the first day of the battle alone the British Forces had almost 20,000 men killed and another 37,000 men wounded. The British historian and biographer Martin Gilbert takes a look at this battle in this book.

"This volume starts with the outbreak of war in September 1939 and ends with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In it, Martin Gilbert reveals not only how each decision was reached, but what influences lay behind it, whether of individuals or of information reaching Churchill from the most secret source of British Intelligence. Drawing on a remarkable diversity of material, including the War Cabinet and other Government records, as well as Churchill's own archive, the diaries and letters of his private secretariat, and the recollections of those who worked most closely with him, Martin Gilbert reveals the full extent of Churchill's personal contribution to every aspect of the struggle. On the day Hitler invaded Poland, Churchill, aged sixty-four, had been out of office for ten years. Two days later, on 3 September 1939, he became First Lord of the Admiralty, in charge of British naval policy and at the center of war direction. On 10 May 1940 he became Prime Minister, leading his nation during a time of grave danger and setbacks. His first year and a half as Prime Minister included the Dunkirk evacuation, the fall of France, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the Battle of the Atlantic, the struggle in the Western Desert, and Hitler's invasion of Russia. By the end of 1940, Britain under Churchill's leadership had survived the onslaught and was making plans to continue the war against an enemy of unlimited ambition and ferocious will. One of Churchill's inner circle said: "We who worked with Churchill every day of the war still saw at most a quarter of his daily tasks and worries." Martin Gilbert has pieced together the whole, setting in context much hitherto scattered and secret evidence, in order to give an intimate and fascinating account of the architect of Britain's 'finest hour'"--Bloomsbury collection.