Editorial Reviews -
A War To Be Won
Wall Street Journal - Gabriel Schoenfeld
In A War to Be Won authors Williams Murray and Allan R. Millet tell their subtle history ranges over the question of strategic bombing and all other pivotal aspects of the war, examining how the conflict was fought at the operational level and offering a fascinating view of the complex and sometimes hidden tradefoffs in Allied and Axis battfield stragegy.
Times Higher Education Supplement [UK] - John Erickson
[C]onfined within a single volume, [it] is a remarkable achievement deserving of the many plaudits it has received.
Dallas Morning News - Calvin L. Christman
An outstanding single-volume history of [a] central moment...
Washington Post - Robert Killebrew
This is edgy, though expert, history.
Parade Magazine - Herbert Kupferberg
This is as masterful and readable a one-volume history of the Second World War as anyone is likely to write.
St. Joseph News-Press - Fred Slater
[A] comprehensive history of the military aspect of World War II...[they] provide a broad view of the two-hemisphere tragedy.
Publishers Weekly
Scholarship and insight place this book in the front rank of military history written in the 20th century's final decade. The authors--Murray is senior fellow at Washington's Institute for Defense Analyses and Millett is a chaired professor of military history at Ohio State--make no secret of their convictions on personal, institutional and operational issues, but are nevertheless remarkably successful at avoiding the armchair debunking that mars so many histories of the period. Backed by meticulous operational analysis, Murray and Millett compellingly view the war as a death grapple between civilization (however imperfect) and genocidal, racist imperialism. Both sides absorbed unprecedented levels of punishment and still functioned effectively, yet the authors show that the Allies mobilized resources to an extraordinary degree and developed unprecedented levels of cooperation against Germany and Japan, with U.S. armed forces in particular demonstrating high learning curves. After recovering from Stalin's purges, by 1943 the Red Army was successfully combining numbers and technology to take full advantage of every opportunity offered by a declining Wehrmacht. On the other side of the front, instead of making the hard choices required by Germany's limited resources, Hitler and his military leaders attempted everything simultaneously. They increasingly substituted ideology for men and equipment. Japan, too, fought a vitalist war, with will power unsuccessfully substituting for both fire power and rational calculation. The result, Murray and Millett brilliantly show, was to exclude negotiation and persuasion, leaving victory in battle the only choice in modern history's only total war. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Herbert Kupferberg - Parade Magazine
[Murray and Millett] are military historians but take an extraordinarily broad view of the conflict [of World War II]--its political and economic origins, its diplomatic maneuvering, its strategic designs and its human toll, but above all its combat. In 600-plus pages, they zero in on the troops who did the fighting and the commanders who led--and sometimes misled--them...The writing is brisk and lively, the revelations sometimes startling, and the selection of photographs generous and revealing. This is as masterful and readable a one-volume history of the Second World War as anyone is likely to write.
Hew Strachan - Times Literary Supplement
In A War To Be Won: Fighting the Second World War, Williamson Murray and Allan Millett have...eschewed grand strategy for what they describe as operational history. They have plugged a large gap...They combine firm and fresh judgments with common humanity; and they achieve balance not only between the theaters of war but also between themselves. Murray knows about Germany, Britain and air power, Millett about the United States and its armed forces. If they divided their subject matter accordingly, the seams are never evident. This is an outstanding history of the war.
John Erickson - Times Higher Education Supplement
While...several volumes present admirably comprehensive panoramas of the second world war, the very nature of this approach precludes close operational analysis as opposed to general operational narrative. This is the gap that A War To Be Won fills--an operational history of the 1939-1945 war focusing on military operations, with dispassionate discussion of military effectiveness whether involving the Allies or the Axis...A War To Be Won, confined within a single volume, is a remarkable achievement deserving of the many plaudits it has received. It has a narrative deftness that will attract the general reader, operational analysis incisive and original enough to engage the specialist, technical evaluation and tactical appraisal of military effectiveness in abundance, though not without controversial, even acerbic comment where appropriate.
James J. Sheehan - Political Science Quarterly
It is the most complete, balanced, and well-informed history of military operations now available.
Robert Killebrew - Washington Post
The West's eventual triumph is the subject of A War to Be Won, a comprehensive and highly readable history by two eminent and prolific military historians. Williamson Murray and Allan Millet focus on operations but range far and wide into politics, strategy, military doctrines (why armies fight the way they do), weapons, science and tactics, from the bumbling politics of the 30's to the Cold War...This is edgy, though expert, history. The ordeal of the Soviet war against Germany is dramatically and vividly told, as is the pillage and rape that Red Army soldiers inflicted on prisoners and civilians within reach.
Calvin L. Christman - Dallas Morning News
An outstanding single-volume history of [a] central moment...[The authors] write in a brisk, confident and knowledgeable style, often sprinkling their analyses with pithy irony, sardonic wit and sharp insights...Murray and Millett have produced a magnificent volume, one that will fascinate and enlighten both expert and layman alike. A War to Be Won now takes its place as the core volume in any library on the history of the Second World War, and it will likely remain so for years to come.
Louis Ray Sadler - Albuquerque Journal
The best synthesis of all of [the] new scholarship on WWII is, in my opinion, Williamson Murray and Allan Millett's superb comprehensive history of the war...There are a number of rather surprising assessments of individual commanders in the war...Anyone interested in this deadliest of all wars should consult this marvelous book.
Dick Kreck - Denver Post
Military historians Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett dissect tactics and operations of the war's major players in A War To Be Won...Unlike other volumes on WWII, many of which examine the soldiers' day-to-day life in the trenches, A War To Be Won focuses on the overall picture, the strategic successes and failures of the warring nations.
Richard B. Frank - Naval History
Two highly accomplished historians...collaborated to produce this magnificent one-volume history of World War II. While they do not neglect political or economic factors, what truly sets this work apart is their focus on 'the conduct of operations by the military organizations that waged the war.'...this is a riveting book that stimulates as much as it informs--and is a must read for any student of World War II or military professional.
Max Hastings - Evening Standard
Most recent single-volume histories of the Second World War have been disappointing. It is a Herculean task to cover such a vast canvas of time and space. Authors wilt visibly under the strain. Here, however, is a work of exceptional quality from two distinguished American military historians...This book makes an important contribution to understanding both the military context and the nature of this vast global conflict.
Fred Slater - St. Joseph News-Press
World War II is fast slipping from memory. So it takes a book, such as A War To Be Won...to make one realize the horror of that conflict...In this comprehensive history of the military aspect of World War II...[the authors] provide a broad view of the two-hemisphere tragedy.
KLIATT
Every generation needs a new reprise of WW II, tailored to its own historical frame of reference and its own cultural values. The rise of different scholarly interpretations and the discovery of new material also play a part. The war was an immense cataclysm fought on a global scale by huge armies of citizen-soldiers, armed with technology that alone could change the world, and led by personalities that were larger than life. Thus, it is not surprising that decades would have to pass before the initial assumptions about the war and the popular "lessons" of combat could be studied in more objective detail. Authors Murray (a senior fellow at a prestigious Washington think tank) and Millett (a distinguished professor of military history) have done a terrific job with this formidable task. Just describing the war in a coherent fashion is no mean accomplishment, and here the authors have described the war's events in many small sections that fit together neatly. They manage to discuss the war without jingoism and with a minimum of national bias. The passing of the major leaders and commanders from the scene enabled the authors to study their strengths, weaknesses and mistakes in objective detail. This is not a debunking book, yet for almost the first time we are learning, for example, about bungling in the Navy's high command, and the horrific costs of MacArthur's vainglorious "return" to the Philippines. Better yet, all of this is presented in vigorous and readable prose. It is written for the interested adult who wants a full understanding of how the war really went, who really did what, and for what reasons. There is combat action enough to intrigue the fiercest YA reader, but the battlesand campaigns are handled in a mature fashion, with plenty of detail and new material for sincere military buffs. There are also numerous new photos of wartime subjects. Category: History & Geography. KLIATT Codes: SA*—Exceptional book, recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Harvard Univ. Press, Belknap, 656p. illus. notes. bibliog. index., $18.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Raymond L. Puffer; Ph.D., Historian, Edwards Air Force Base, CA SOURCE: KLIATT, March 2002 (Vol. 36, No. 2)
Wall Street Journal - Gabriel Schoenfeld
A subtle history [that] ranges over the question of strategic bombing and all other pivotal aspects of the war, examining how the conflict was fought at the operational level and offering a fascinating view of the complex and sometimes hidden tradeoffs in Allied and Axis battlefield strategy... This book, full of measured and incisive judgments...is a major contribution to the vast literature of World War II.
Kirkus Reviews
A magisterial, hypnotically detailed tactical narrative of WWII, with the competing military, political, and social histories of the maelstrom writ large—yet comprehensibly presented. Coauthors Murray (Senior Fellow/Institute for Defense Analysis) and Millett (Military History/Ohio State Univ.) spent decades on their research, and the result is an essential plurality of understanding that allows them to consider the military strategies (and underlying realities) of the various Allied and Axis nations. Intentionally or otherwise, this book occupies ground distinct from Stephen Ambrose's popular books, in that they focus much less on the personalized experiences of the soldier and more on the significant strategies, decisions, and movements of governments and generals (and the corresponding actions of the many individual naval, combat, and bomber units, and sundry partisan and espionage triumphs) which, taken together, form the artificial patchwork of industrialized devastation we think of as "the war." Surprisingly, this "globalized" perspective does not produce abstract or diffuse results, but allows the authors to present a nuanced panorama of scarce information and unique interpretations. Offering equal weight to both the European and Pacific theaters, and connecting the complex, sometimes counter-productive Allied campaigns and the Axis military actions and ideology with the weight of human tragedy and societal disruption fomented in the occupied nations (and especially the Eastern Front), Murray and Millet allow one to simultaneously understand a distant historical event as technological warfare and as the 20th century's cruel pivot. Broadcanvasnotwithstanding, the authors wisely rely upon important (and often obscure) primary sources, including combatant and survivor recollections, to add thought-provoking dialogues to the survey. And their inclusion of political and social interpretation clarifies the mystery of whole peoples' motivation towards a "total war" that demolished peoples and national entities. Strongly written with the stern clarity of senior historians, this is a spellbinding history: the reader will hear the whine of the bombers and see the guttering lights of Europe, and find this rich assemblage of horror and destiny hard to set down.
What People Are Saying
Amid the immense literature on the Second World War, it is remarkable that one niche has not hitherto been filled: a one-volume history focusing on military operations. This book remedies that omission and does so superbly, with accuracy and interpretive flair. There is nothing else quite like it.
What People Are Saying
Amid the immense literature on the Second World War, it is remarkable that one niche has not hitherto been filled: a one-volume history focusing on military operations. This book remedies that omission and does so superbly, with accuracy and interpretive flair. There is nothing else quite like it.
— Russell F. Weigley, author of The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy
What People Are Saying
An excellent history of the Second World War, which offers a new and deeply illuminating view of why the major operations were launched and of the effectiveness with which they were conducted. The story is enriched by an original analysis of the ideas, ideological aims, technology, social consequences and international impact of the most intense conflict that the world has seen. A comprehensive, well-founded and enlightening single volume history.
— Robert O'Neill, Chichele Professor of the History of War, All Souls College, Oxford
What People Are Saying
Without question A War To Be Won is the most compelling single volume history of the Second World War ever written. Murray and Millett are superb historians imbued with a trenchant gift for analysis, detachment and synthesis. A noble, grand, and sweeping achievement.
— Douglas Brinkley, Director, The Eisenhower Center, University of New Orleans
What People Are Saying
Thousands of books have been published about World War II, but very few have possessed he level of scholarly perspective, encompassing scale and insightful detail to be found in this one. With its penetrating view of operational strategy on all sides during the war, it is among the finest of WWII studies and the best one-volume account of the military conflict I've ever read.
— William W. Starr, Columbia State
What People Are Saying
Murray and Millett have done an enormous service by providing a wonderful, one-volume history of the fighting of World War II. Those of us who fought the war must applaud them. It is a book for everyone, not just for the military history buff. I plan to tell my grandchildren that to understand World War II, the defining event of the Twentieth Century, and the generation that fought it, they must read this book.
— John W. Vessey, General, United States Army (retired), former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
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