All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945

The seminal narrative history of the Second World War from one of our finest historians. A book which depicts what the war was like to live through -- whether you were a starving child in Leningrad, a soldier in North Africa, or a civilian in Dresden. With its battlefields dispersed across the globe, the vastness of the Second World War was unparalleled. This was a time when nearly everything which civilised people took for granted in peace time was destroyed. Between 1939 and 1945, around 27,000 people died, every single day -- most of them on the Eastern Front. Many men and women who lived through this catastrophe struggled to find the words to describe what they witnessed daily. Many turned to a phrase, which although a cliche, summed things up: "All Hell's Let Loose!" In this magisterial single-volume history of a war that continues to fascinate and horrify us in equal measure, Max Hastings brings together many different human stories, and touches on almost every country in the world. Hastings stresses that it is impossible to compare the suffering of people during WWII -- it would have seemed monstrous to a British soldier facing a mortar barrage, with his comrades dying around him, to be told that Russian casualties were many thousand times greater. However, there were some aspects of wartime experience that were universal: fear and grief; the conscription of young men and women sent to new lives remote from their choice, genocide and mass migration. All Hell Let Loose charts these experiences, along with the numerous battles on land, at sea and in the air, all over the world, that formed the greatest conflict in human history. Using a huge range of sources, including new material from Russia, Italy and Poland, All Hell Let Loose is not only a magnificent and movingly written book; it is arguably one of the most important books on the Second World War ever published.

Praise for Finest Years: 'I would choose this account over and above the rest. It is a fabulous book: full of perceptive insight that conveys all the tragedy, triumph, humour and intense drama of Churchill's time as wartime leader; and it is incredibly moving as a result' James Holland, Literary Review 'One of the best books ever written about Churchill!Hastings's efficient, soldierly prose marches along at a brisk pace and carries the reader with it. He has drawn on copious original sources and consulted experts familiar with them, enabling him to cast fresh light on familiar episodes!.a magnificent performance' Piers Brendon, Sunday Times 'The book's portrait of Churchill is scrupulously fair and often deeply moving!.in fact Hastings excels with all his character portraits, especially with Roosevelt and Stalin. Hastings is truly a master of strategy and high command' Antony Beevor, Mail on Sunday 'Hastings's brilliant!remarkable book!At a time when our politicians are mismanaging a foreign war, it has many invaluable lessons!.a timely as well as a judicious and important book' Michael Burliegh, Sunday Telegraph 'Brilliantly executed!this is a superb book, majestic in scope and depth, studded with insights and judgments that brilliantly illuminate great and terrible events' Evening Standard "This is a rich and rewarding book, the fruit of many years of reflection on the conduct of the war. It is enlivened by countless insights on matters great and small, and by a spare, tenchant style which holds the reader's attention throughout its 600 pages" The Spectator "A vivid, moving, warts and all picture of a leader who was determined to be a hero" David Cannadine, TLS, Books of the Year