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  • Stalin's War

  • A New History of World War II
  • Auteur(s): Sean McMeekin
  • Narrateur(s): Kevin Stillwell
  • Durée: 24 h et 56 min
  • 4,6 out of 5 stars (24 évaluations)

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Stalin's War

Auteur(s): Sean McMeekin
Narrateur(s): Kevin Stillwell
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Description

A prize-winning historian reveals how Stalin - not Hitler - was the animating force of World War II in this major new history.

World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia - and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war.

Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941-1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary.

McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American material, from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army.

This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.

A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is an essential book for anyone looking to understand the current world order.

©2021 Sean McMeekin (P)2021 Basic Books
  • Version intégrale Livre audio
  • Catégories: Histoire
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Ce que les critiques en disent

“A provocative revisionist take on the Second World War...an accomplished, fearless, and enthusiastic ‘myth buster’...McMeekin is a formidable researcher, working in several languages, and he is prepared to pose the big questions and make judgments.... The story of the war itself is well told and impressive in its scope, ranging as it does from the domestic politics of small states such as Yugoslavia and Finland to the global context. It reminds us, too, of what Soviet ‘liberation’ actually meant for eastern Europe.... McMeekin is right that we have for too long cast the second world war as the good one. His book will, as he must hope, make us re-evaluate the war and its consequences.” (Financial Times)

"Indispensable.... There are new books every year that promise ‘a new history’ of such a well-studied subject as World War II, but McMeekin actually delivers on that promise.” (Christian Science Monitor)

"Sean McMeekin’s revisionist Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II isn’t just one of the most compelling histories written about the war this year, it’s one of the best ever. I doubt anyone who reads it will think about the Second World War in the same way." (David Harsanyi, The Federalist's Notable Books of 2021)

Ce que les auditeurs disent de Stalin's War

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Au global
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Au global
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Histoire
    5 out of 5 stars

Intriguing book

It was nice to listen to a book that doesn't retread the same old wwII narratives. It provides a convincing argument that America and to a lesser extent Britain were manipulated by Stalin and his operatives into less than ideal end states following the war and really questions the perception of wwII as the 'good war'. It lead my mind along new pathways and new ways of considering the world, and in my perspective this is a good thing.

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  • Au global
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Histoire
    5 out of 5 stars

How Stalin won the war

A fascinating look at how Stalin manipulated events and the allies to maximize his power over Eastern Europe.

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  • Au global
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Histoire
    3 out of 5 stars

Two major flaws and One Good point

In Short, the two major flaws are
1) Author Bias, sometimes unsubstantiated
2) Narrator intonation

The first flaw hit the the hardest at the end of chapter 8. You really are given a strong impression the author feels that Britain should have declared war on Russia in 1940. Possibly due to a strong anti-Soviet tone which often comes across somewhat derogative. His mentioning of Chamberlain’s dithering on Russia almost tries to imply that this dithering wasn’t justified as though Attacking the Soviet Union while fighting Germany would have resulted in a sure Allied victory. I doubt it would have. Probably would have been just as fatal a mistake as Germany making that error. This theme of Britain “missing it’s chance” continues to resurface in subsequent chapters.
The second flaw is that the narrator seems to habitually finish every sentence with a vocal tone that implies that every single decision is shockingly bizarre no
matter who makes it. Everything from the mundane to sensible decisions ends with that same “wtf” intonation. It gets annoying after awhile, as it is more based on speaking habit then actually matching the tone with the event. A little variety, and congruence with meaning of the vocal intonation would make it a much better listen.

The good point is that it’s nice to have a story unfold from the Russian side of the war. You do get well researched facts. If you can tolerate the author’s strong anti-Russian bias, “Britain should have attacked Russia” Bias and the narrators annoyingly repetitive “that was bizarre” intonation, you can get somewhat of a decent picture of the view from the East compared to most WW2 Hitler Central books

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  • Au global
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Histoire
    3 out of 5 stars

Very well written and interesting, but bias

Sean McMeekin is a good writer and knows how to tell a story. He is extremely well served by the narration of Kevin Stillwell. But this a history book, i.e. a reconstruction of the past based on evidence. History, like science, constantly revisit knowledge, adds to, or changes it. “New history of…” are therefore much welcomed, if you back them up with solid documents or facts, and that you are extremely prudent in your interpretations. On this level, Stalin’s War is problematic. It presents a lot of hypotheses as thesis, but the demonstration is not always convincing. For example, one can claim that Stalin wished that Japan invaded Manchuria, if there is evidence proving that. But it is not the same as saying that Stalin pushed Tokyo to do it and it worked. Especially if you have not examined in detail the Japanese sources to see what Tokyo’s motivations were. When Stalin did not invade immediately Poland in 1939, it may have been a political maneuver, but there were logistical reasons as well: the Red army was not yet ready to attack - but did nevertheless soon after the Germans complained. World War II is a very complex subject, and one must be weary of monolithic explanations, especially ideologically driven ones. That being said, McMeekin brings a lot of factual and detailed information’s, for example lend-lease figures, that are really interesting.

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