Stalin's War
A New History of World War II
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Stalin's War
Acheter pour 52,44 $
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Narrateur(s):
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Kevin Stillwell
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Auteur(s):
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Sean McMeekin
À propos de cet audio
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 BooksCe 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)
How Stalin won the war
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Intriguing book
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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
Two major flaws and One Good point
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Very well written and interesting, but bias
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