In World War II, the fiercest fighting in Europe took place on the Eastern Front. Image credit: History.com
For some time, I’ve been fascinated by the eight-year stretch of world history called World War II. I was born six months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor formally brought the United States into the war. Although I have no active memory of the war itself, I do vividly recall staring goggle-eyed across the dinner table at the maps on the front page of my father’s newspaper that portrayed the movements of warships and armies. (In fact, that was how I learned to read starting at age three—upside down, picking out first the letters, then the words in the headlines.) And my interest in the war deepened over the years as I studied history both in college and in graduate school. In the years since I began actively reviewing books, I’ve rekindled my interest in World War II. The many reviews I’ve posted on this website about both nonfiction books and novels about the war are one result. Following are the articles about World War II that I’ve written on the basis of that reading.
