Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Rise of Germany, 1939-1941
The War in the West, Volume 1
James Holland

Atlantic Monthly Press
October 6, 2015 / ISBN 978-0802123978
History \ Military \ World War II

Reviewed by Richard Morelli

 

James Holland's latest opus, 1939 - 1941 The War in the West (The Rise of Germany), is the latest of a new generation of historians writing "revisionist" views of WWII. An established military historian, James Holland provides yet new insights into the circumstances leading to the outbreak of WWII in Europe. What makes this narrative informative and revealing, is the way that Holland weaves into the narrative the multifaceted aspects of nations at war. Breaking away from the usual, but narrow military and political view of why WWII occurred, Holland presents a complex picture from all sides of the impact of decision makers, personal accounts by combatants and citizens, economic drivers, the role of technology, the Battle of the Atlantic, key political decisions and the various military campaigns that in sum was the War in the West 1939 - 1941.

What I liked about this narrative is the way Holland describes the complexity that was the War in the West from not just the perspective of Great Britain, Germany, France, Norway, Belgium, Poland, and the Netherlands, but also the United States and Italy. Italy is rarely treated with the attention and role it played during this phase of WWII. Holland also provides some myth breaking views, such as Great Britain arming itself well before Germany's invasion of Poland and that, in many respects, Great Britain was more economically powerful than Nazi Germany when the war broke out.

As one reads this narrative with its contemporaneous accounts by ordinary citizens and combatants from all sides, an intense personal view of the war comes out. Layered with the decisions made by the leaders, one comes away with a chaotic picture of war with its heroes and opportunists that provide an inconvenient truth of the messiness, horrors, missteps, and humanity that is war.

Reviewed 2015
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