Title: An Unbalanced Account
Product review: A fully satisfactory one-volume history of the Second World War may be an impossibility, but this tome doesn't come close. Its worst faults are its weird misallocations of space (pages and pages on British social developments and Japanese politics in the 1930's, for example, but only a single chapter on the Russian front) and its very summary treatment of most military developments. As a result it is not very useful as a reference. Although the political and diplomatic history of the war is emphasized, the analysis of this area is disjointed and undeveloped, bogged down by details that are never fitted into a framework. Lesser faults are sloppy writing and editing in many places and a preachy and moralistic "PC" tone that misses no opportunity to denigrate the Allies and especially the United States. The only recommendation, and this is only for buffs, is that you may well find some factual nuggets that you were previously unaware of.
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