A World at Arms: A Global History of
World War II, New Edition by Gerhard
L. Weinberg
The Best Single-Volume Work On Wwii
This comprehensive examination of the Second World War looks at grand
strategy and diplomacy, as opposed to the gritty details of the combat
experience. A World at Arms is written in a matter-of-fact tone, so dont
expect a poetic narrative. Despite this, no other historian has presented
such a sweeping overview. Weinberg performs the important task of
reminding his readers in the West that much of the fighting--and perhaps
the most decisive parts--was done in the East, between the Germans and
the Russians. American readers, for their part, may appreciate Weinbergs
treatment of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who is portrayed as a courageous
wartime leader. This book is an essential part of any library on the Second
World War.

Personal Review: A World at Arms: A Global History of World
War II, New Edition by Gerhard L. Weinberg
This is a panoramic, nuanced, and deft treatment of an all too familiar
subject, WW-II. In one of the rarest and most refreshing presentations of
history I have ever seen, this author takes "looking at the big picture" about
as seriously as it can be taken, and then gives us the unique benefits of a
grand tour of a history we thought we already knew everything there was
to know.
Even the strategy class at the National War College did not have such a
singular laser like focus on the "big picture" as did this author. His primary
concern and his unit of analysis in this narrative was "World War-II history
as an organic historical whole." Said somewhat differently, although all of
the familiar personalities and events that appear routinely in other versions
of WW-II history - often as the very centerpiece of those stories - are
included here, no matter how big they may be, here they are allowed to
make only cameo appearances. Big events and big personalities are just
never allowed to overwhelm or get in the way of the larger purpose of
telling an integrated story. Big ticket items are never allowed to dominate
an analysis whose job is to weave together the various disparate parts into
an integrated whole that is larger than the sum of the parts.
If that was the author's goal, then he accomplished it admirably.
Taking advantage of recently declassified documents added immense
value in rounding out the details of an already rich and robust picture. The
author used these new revelations like an artist uses various tints on his
palette, to add color in the proper places to his narrative and to give
surprises to his analysis backed up with extensive citations. But again,
even here, the author continues to maintain the same sense of balance
and proportion as he introduces new and important information on
economic, political, diplomatic, intelligence and even military dimensions:
On the surface these all seemed like so many innocent facts, separate
strains to be covered in proportion to their value in telling the larger story, a
story that to the bitter end of all 900 pages, remained "tightly integrated"
and always larger than the sum of any of its component parts.
This resolute focus on the bigger picture did not mean however, that
Weinberg's presentation was dull, or predictable or even academic or
pedantic, just the opposite in fact. This sweeping story is chocked full of
surprising revelations, twists and spins that altogether constitute interesting
side trips paved with new facts, yet they are all carefully woven into the
fabric of the overall narrative.
As but one such example among many, the author gives appropriate time
and space to the quality of the planning and strategic thinking abilities of
the leaders of the Axis powers. This point is not only interesting, but raises
knew questions about Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini and their respective
general staffs as being only slightly better than flawed strategic thinkers

and planners. With several examples of a kind of endemic "groupthink,"
that at least up through 1944 had afflicted the general staffs of the axis
powers, the author reveals them all as having been "rank" amateur
thinkers, virtually asleep at the switch: sleep waking through some of the
major decisions of the war. All were revealed as just as likely as not, to see
and accept the sounder strategic choices often recommended by their
smarter but lower echelon staffs. Not only did this erratic, capricious
inability to see good choices lead to colossal mistakes, mistakes that the
weaker Allied forces exploited repeatedly, but they also raise new
questions about the thinness of the margin the Allied forces actually had in
winning the war. Clearly, a great deal of Allied success hinged on the
whims of the Axis leaders colossal mistakes. Had they made better
choices in even just a few of the botched cases, and had we not had the
superior intelligence that revealed them doing so at the time, we may not
have won the war.
Seeing the war as an integrated whole picture is an entirely new
experience and vantage point for the reader, a new height from which to
view all of the strains of a familiar subject as they come together. What a
memory aid! What a way to stimulate the mind! What a template for future
storytelling! Easily five stars.
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