Product Description

From blitzkrieg and blackout to ghettos and Guadalcanal, World War II was a conflict that touched all nations and penetrated all aspects of people's lives. Sixty years after it ended, it still shapes the world we live in today. With over 1,750 A-Z entries, by more than 140 specialist contributors from Germany, Italy, and Japan, as well as from the Allied nations, the Companion provides uniquely worldwide coverage of the war. The strategies, forces, battles, and campaigns, and the social,political, and economic environments in which they operated are explored from both sides of the conflict. Every aspect of the war is covered: in-depth surveys of the countries involved in the conflict; politics and strategy; domestic and economic issues; resistance and intelligence; campaigns and battles; warfare and weapons; wartime leaders and influential people; slogans and slang The Companion's comprehensive coverage and in-depth analysis are supported by hundreds of maps, charts, and diagrams, and a full chronology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1619738 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1064 pages

From Amazon.com
The definitive single-volume reference work for students of World War II, I. C. B. Dear's 1,400-page compendium provides a wealth of detail on matters that standard histories often gloss over or pass over altogether. For example, Dear covers the Night and Fog Decree, which called for the execution of any civilians committing crimes against German forces in occupied territories, as well as the Battle of the Courland Peninsula, in which Red Army soldiers overwhelmed the last German forces in the Baltic and seized Latvia and Lithuania for the Soviet Union. This is a fine book to browse through while watching Bataan or The Longest Day, or to have on hand to provide background material for other World War II-related reading.

From Booklist
This compendium was issued in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of World War II. Several other one-volume encyclopedias treat this topic: The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of World War II (1978), The Historical Guide to World War II (Greenwood, 1983), The Dictionary of the Second World War (Bedrick, 1990), and World War II: America at War, 1941^-1945 [RBB Ja 15 92]. The last-named book is closest in coverage to Oxford but was criticized for its American viewpoint.

This new work has more than 1,700 alphabetically arranged entries. More than 160 scholars contributed to the volume, most from universities in Britain. Entries range from 50 words to almost 30 pages on major countries. Almost every aspect of the war is covered, including its effect on civilians. Children discuss the war's impact on children in many nations. Lengthy essays cover Women at War and Religion. The many biographical entries include both political and military persons. By far the most exhaustive essays are reserved for countries, all of which have standard subsections such as "Domestic Life, Economy, and War Effort" and "Government." The entry for the U.S. includes 27 pages of text and eight statistical tables. Briefer entries treat countries that were neutral during the war, for example, Sweden and Turkey.

In addition to statistics within entries, there are special tables accompanying articles. Unfortunately there is no index or table of contents for these tables. Cross-references within entries are noted by asterisks; there are limited see also references at the ends of articles. Like other Oxford companions, there is no index.

More than 100 line-drawn maps provide battle information as well as sites of death and concentration camps and the Manhattan Project. A separate section of color maps shows territorial changes between 1939 and 1945, the British and French empires, and other themes. A chronology begins in 1931 with Japanese troops occupying Manchuria and lists events under five geographic regions to the formal surrender of the Japanese on September 2, 1945. A list of place-name changes shows current and wartime names (e.g., Gdansk and Danzig).

Other titles give more detailed coverage of specific aspects of this period in history, for example, The D-Day Encyclopedia [RBB Ja 1 94] and the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust [RBB Mr 1 90]. But The Oxford Companion to World War II is an excellent overview for public and academic libraries that need to supplement other works in their reference collections.

Review
`The Oxford Companion to the Second World War, by virtue of its scale, its range and its scholarship, is an outstanding guide, as sensible and cogent on the big questions as it is instructive and informed on the lesser ones.' Hew Strachan, Times Literary Supplement

`indispensable ... unlikely to be superseded this century' John Keegan, Daily Telegraph

`easy to use, solid of fact, perceptive and judicious' John Erickson, Times Higher Education Supplement

`It will immediately take its place as the indispensable reference book for students of the second world war' Gordon Lee, The Economist

`a magnificent volume and an invaluable resource' J. A. Crang, The Historical Association