A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume II: 1933-1951

"For virtually every episode described in these pages," Oxford historian Martin Gilbert remarks, "a complete volume could be written." Cramming 19 years into just over 900 pages of text (the maps, photos, index, and bibliography easily stretch the full length over 1,000) is a daunting task, but Gilbert rises to the challenge with a panoramic effort, offering a genuinely global perspective that, coming after several looks back at the "American century," serves as an excellent reminder that there's a whole world beyond the borders of the United States.

The Second World War, as one might expect, holds a central position in the text, occupying the entire middle third and exerting a powerful hold over the events preceding and following it. The opening years, for example, contrast the efforts of many world leaders to maintain lasting peace despite the rise of Nazi Germany. The years after the war see Europe--and then the rest of the world--divided up between the two power blocs engaged in a new, "cold" war. Gilbert neatly compresses his theme of the defense of liberty, and the lessons learned in the fight against authoritarian regimes, by noting that "in 1938, Neville Chamberlain had spoken of Czechoslovakia as 'a far-away country of which we know nothing.' Truman said in 1950, 'Korea is a small country thousands of miles away, but what is happening there is important to every American.'"