Catherine Merridale's Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945, is a fascinating and necessary look at men all too often reduced to a subhuman status by not only their Second World War foes but nearly fifty years of Cold War propaganda. What most grants Merridale's work its importance lies within what is sometimes forgotten about the Second World War; the reality Hitler and his National Socialist regime were dedicated to fighting a racial war against only the Jew but also against the Slav - humans Hitler referred to as untermenschen
Richard Dinardo's Germany and the Axis Powers: From Coalition to Collapse (Modern War Studies) fills an invaluable niche in the literature currently available on the Second World War's European Theater. In particular, Dinardo has focused on Germany's relationship with Finland, Hungary, Italy and Romania; producing a concise but revealing analysis into the numerous problems that derailed the Axis coalition.
In Germany and the Axis Powers Dinardo has produced a book not only examining how dysfunctional the Axis alliance really was but, more importantly,
Keith Bird's Erich Raeder: Admiral of the Third Reich breaks new ground in exploring one of the pivotal personalities involved in the war at sea during World War II. Remarkably, in the sixty plus years since the War ended no one has produced a complete biographical treatment of German Grand Admiral Erich Raeder. Bird's work fills this gaping hole in the historical narrative and focuses on not just Raeder, but more importantly his stewardship of the German Navy during the critical years of 1928-1943. In Erich Raeder: Admiral of the Third Reich Bird has
Adam Tooze's The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economyis an extraordinary piece of scholarship and for years to come will no doubt be regarded as essential reading for anyone seeking a greater understanding into Germany's Second World War economy. Tooze's work comprehensively breaks down the how and why of Hitler's quest to establish a German empire in Europe and the role economics played in German defeat.
Just when you thought there was little more to be gleaned from the thoroughly documented armored battles in France between June and September 1944 Tank Tactics: From Normandy to Lorraine (Stackpole Military History Series) emerged in 2001 to thoroughly and thought provokingly redefine what is known about these pivotal events in World War Two.
For anyone interested in the German method of warfare, or for those that just enjoy a good operational history, Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942 (Modern War Studies)ranks among the best of today's scholarship. Conventional wisdom has long posited Hitler played the crucial role in turning Germany's stupendous victories during the spring and summer of 1942, in the Soviet Union and North African Desert, into catastrophic defeat in the fall and winter of that same year.
Few would argue with the assertion Erich von Manstein ranked among the best operational level military commanders of the Second World War, if not the best. Nevertheless, because of Manstein's decisions during and after the War, he also ranks among the War's most controversial figures. In spite of Manstein's central role in the War however, there has been no official biography written about him. In Field Marshal von Manstein: The Janus Head / A Portrait noted military historian Marcel Stein tackles this void in the scholarship on the War.
