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THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPE by Chester Wilmot Kirkus Star

THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPE

By

Pub Date: March 28th, 1952
Publisher: Harper

A singularly dispassionate objective one volume history of the war in Europe, written by an Australian BBC correspondent, who was himself participant in some of the phases of which he writes. But this is not a personal experience record. Based on careful winnowing of the published records, on the recently available material from the German files, on British material not used by American historians, this given now one front, now another, sometimes British, sometimes American, sometimes German- and only indirectly Russian. There's much the same kind of pace and sense of drama in reconstructed remembered history that Rummel Desert For conveyed. There's news value more in the weighing of the evidence, the conclusions drawn, than in actual sharing of wholly new material. For example, the relations between the generals at the top on the allied side, the conflicts between Roosevelt and Churchill and Stalin, the disunity and disillusion among the German top brass in relation to Hitler, all comes out vividly. The whys of many surprise moves- or failures to move- on Hitler's part are discussed. This is the sort of book rarely written until long after the event. It makes absorbing reading, particularly for armchair strategists, today.