This is a stunning visual history of the greatest conflict in world history. The Second World War is the largest event in the history of mankind: no populated continent was untouched by its operations and the political structure of the post-war world has been largely determined by its outcome. The global nature of the war, and the ambitions of the belligerents, meant that it was fought on a scale which, even today, confounds the imagination. It was a stimulus to unparralleled economic activity and provoked the most important clash of ideologies experienced by the world since the Crusades. The scale and scope of the war is presented here in graphic form. Maps form the basis for tracing not only the military campaigns, but also the social, economic, and political developments during the war. Examination of decisive battles, and military tactics, new weaponry, and key commanders adds a further depth of understanding of the war that forever changed our world.

Author Biography

John Keegan was educated at King's College, Taunton, Wimbledon College, and Balliol College, Oxford, of which he is an Honorary Fellow. From 1960--1986 he taught military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Since 1986 he has been Defence Editor of The Daily Telegraph. He is a prize-winning author (A History of Warfare (1993) won the Duff Cooper Prize and The First World War (1998) was awarded the Westminster Medal), he received an OBE in the 1991 Gulf War Honours List, and was knighted in 1999, for services to military history.