I thought this was a worthwhile attempt at revealing the momentous events of second world war. Basically a visual presentation of those years using maps and bite-size text. As it's a Dorling-Kindersley book the layout, paper and printing are first class. Unlike a text book about the war which can have any number of words a map format has difficulties, what to include and what to leave out so that the reader can easily follow the flow of events.
Each spread in the book has a theme and a brief intro about the subject. The maps are beautifully created in various light colors so the black type and other graphics are readable (though oddly, none of the maps have a mileage scale, a fairly obvious essential for any map). Numbered text panels explain the detail in the maps and I thought the addition of dates in these panels a clever idea.
Any credible book about the war years will cover the pre-war and post-war years. The book's first section 'The slide to war' covers 1918 to 1939 and 'Endgame and aftermath' looks at 1944 to 1955. These pages add some essential perspective to the actual war years.
I thought the book was an ideal introduction to this world conflict. I'm surprised at how cheap the hardback copies are considering the number of pages and excellent graphic content. Worth saying that the very detailed visual aspects of the book will not be too readable on a digital devise.
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