Stalin's War
A New History of World War II
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Narrated by:
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Kevin Stillwell
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By:
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Sean McMeekin
About this listen
A prize-winning historian reveals how Stalin - not Hitler - was the animating force of World War II in this major new history.
World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia - and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war.
Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941-1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary.
McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American material, from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army.
This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.
A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is an essential book for anyone looking to understand the current world order.
©2021 Sean McMeekin (P)2021 Basic BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A provocative revisionist take on the Second World War...an accomplished, fearless, and enthusiastic ‘myth buster’...McMeekin is a formidable researcher, working in several languages, and he is prepared to pose the big questions and make judgments.... The story of the war itself is well told and impressive in its scope, ranging as it does from the domestic politics of small states such as Yugoslavia and Finland to the global context. It reminds us, too, of what Soviet ‘liberation’ actually meant for eastern Europe.... McMeekin is right that we have for too long cast the second world war as the good one. His book will, as he must hope, make us re-evaluate the war and its consequences.” (Financial Times)
"Indispensable.... There are new books every year that promise ‘a new history’ of such a well-studied subject as World War II, but McMeekin actually delivers on that promise.” (Christian Science Monitor)
"Sean McMeekin’s revisionist Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II isn’t just one of the most compelling histories written about the war this year, it’s one of the best ever. I doubt anyone who reads it will think about the Second World War in the same way." (David Harsanyi, The Federalist's Notable Books of 2021)
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Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
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Held my interest for 57 hours and 13 minutes
- By Jonnie on 11-08-10
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Tower of Skulls
- A History of the Asia-Pacific War, Vol. 1 (July 1937 - May 1942)
- By: Richard B. Frank
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This story casts penetrating light on how struggles in Europe and Asia merged into a tightly entwined global war. It features not just battles, but also the sweeping political, economic, and social effects of the war, and are graced with a rich tapestry of individual characters from top-tier political and military figures down to ordinary servicemen, as well as the accounts of civilians of all races and ages.
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Outstanding
- By Patrick on 03-16-20
By: Richard B. Frank
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Embers of War
- The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam
- By: Fredrik Logevall
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 32 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In this landmark work that will forever change your understanding of how and why America went to war in Vietnam, author Fredrik Logevall taps newly accessible diplomatic archives in several nations and traces the path that led two Western nations to tragically lose their way in the jungles of Southeast Asia. He brings to life the bloodiest battles of France’s final years in Indochina - and describes how, from an early point, a succession of American leaders made disastrous policy choices that put America on its own collision course with history.
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Understanding Why We failed the People of Vietnam
- By VA on 03-22-21
By: Fredrik Logevall
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Putin's Wars
- From Chechnya to Ukraine
- By: Mark Galeotti
- Narrated by: David Sibley
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself. But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers.
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Botched Attempt on Russian Stress
- By Alexey B. on 12-20-22
By: Mark Galeotti
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Hitler's Great Gamble
- A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II
- By: James Ellman
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the turning points of World War II. Within six months, the invasion bogged down on the outskirts of Moscow, and the Eastern Front proved to be the decisive theater in the defeat of the Third Reich. Ever since, most historians have agreed that this was Hitler's gravest mistake. In Hitler's Great Gamble, James Ellman argues that while Barbarossa was a gamble and perverted by genocidal Nazi ideology, it was not doomed from the start.
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Full of good information and a pretty well established thesis
- By S. H. Moore on 11-28-20
By: James Ellman
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Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 29 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this Pulitzer Prize - winning biography, Barbara Tuchman explores American relations with China through the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed "Vinegar Joe", Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of the National Review, "one of the historian's most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story."
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A period that directly affected our world today
- By Charlotte on 08-29-12
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Hitler
- A Global Biography
- By: Brendan Simms
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 29 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Hitler offers a deeply learned and radically revisionist biography, arguing that the dictator's main strategic enemy, from the start of his political career in the 1920s, was not communism or the Soviet Union, but capitalism and the United States. Whereas most historians have argued that Hitler underestimated the American threat, Simms shows that Hitler embarked on a preemptive war with the United States precisely because he considered it such a potent adversary.
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A good biography with a different viewpoint
- By Timothy on 10-10-19
By: Brendan Simms
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Pearl Harbor
- A Captivating Guide to the Surprise Military Strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service That Caused the United States of America’s Formal Entry into World War II
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The attack of the US Pearl Harbor Naval Base changed the entire progress of World War II, and as a result, it was a very formative event both for the United States and Japan. Though the two nations seemed unlikely enemies at the onset of the Second Great War, bloodshed between them would be greater than anyone could have imagined. The future of the world at large was changed on December 7, 1941, when the Empire of Japan chose to make a preemptive strike on its most feared Pacific neighbor, the United States of America.
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Don’t waste your credit
- By Amazon Customer on 05-17-20
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Hitler's American Gamble
- Pearl Harbor and Germany's March to Global War
- By: Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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By early December 1941, war had changed much of the world beyond recognition. Nazi Germany occupied most of the European continent, while in Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War had turned China into a battleground. But these conflicts were not yet inextricably linked - and the United States remained at peace. Hitler’s American Gamble recounts the five days that upended everything: December 7 to 11.
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A waste of time based on a flawed premise
- By Grant on 11-30-21
By: Brendan Simms, and others
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140 Days to Hiroshima
- The Story of Japan’s Last Chance to Avert Armageddon
- By: David Dean Barrett
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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On the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki comes this heart-pounding account of the war-room drama inside the cabinets of the United States and Japan that led to Armageddon on August 6, 1945. Here are the secret strategy sessions, fierce debates, looming assassinations, and planned invasions that resulted in history’s first use of nuclear weapons in combat, and the ensuing chaotic days as the Japanese government struggled to respond to the reality of nuclear war.
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Never Giving Up
- By Rick B on 07-11-20
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The Nazi Menace
- Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War
- By: Benjamin Carter Hett
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, November 1937. Adolf Hitler meets with his military commanders to impress upon them the urgent necessity for a war of aggression in Eastern Europe. Some generals are unnerved by the Führer’s grandiose plan, but these dissenters are silenced one by one, setting in motion events that will culminate in the most calamitous war in history.
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Bad Melodramatic Reading
- By Tess on 08-18-20
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A History of the Twentieth Century
- By: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 29 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Martin Gilbert, author of the multivolume biography of Winston Churchill and other brilliant works of history, chronicles world events year by year, from the dawn of aviation to the flourishing technology age, taking us through World War I to the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt as president of the United States and Hider as chancellor of Germany.
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Entertaining. Worth reading.
- By Douglas on 08-20-16
By: Martin Gilbert
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The Reckoning
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Prit Buttar retraces the ebb and flow of the various battles and campaigns fought throughout the Ukraine and Romania in 1944. January and February saw Army Group South encircled in the Korsun Pocket. Although many of the encircled troops did escape, in part due to Soviet intelligence and command failures, the Red Army would endeavour to not make the same mistakes again. Indeed, in the coming months the Red Army would demonstrate an ability to learn and improve, reinventing itself as a war-winning machine, demonstrated clearly in its success in the Iasi-Kishinev operation.
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Exceptional
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The Great Terror
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The definitive work on Stalin's purges, The Great Terror was universally acclaimed when it first appeared in 1968. While the original volume had relied heavily on unofficial sources, later developments within the Soviet Union provided an avalanche of new material, which Conquest has mined to write this revised and updated edition of his classic work.
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Compelling and Devestating
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What listeners say about Stalin's War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Eric Ring
- 05-19-21
A New Look on an Old War
This book provides and opens one’s eyes to a bitter side of World War 2 that most Americans have never seen or heard before. This jaw dropping book accounts how America’s politicians of the Great Generation conspired to give Stalin a blank check to murder millions and conquer vast amounts of Eastern European land. It sheds light on the fact that workings and people within our own government provided for these evil deeds and lied to the American people about it. Causing undo suffering on the home front while Stalin reaped the benefits of American stupidity and ignorance. Please, I recommend this book to anyone out there, not only as a fantastic read/listen, but also as a glimpse into the real history of World War 2.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Marky Maypo
- 05-26-21
Eye Opening Research
Good lord. What did FDR wrought? listen to this amazing work and find out! Incredible.
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2 people found this helpful
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- JR
- 01-16-23
New Information Brought to Light
The research and work put into this book stands out with the amount of in depth analysis the author covers.
This book has been a great listen as it’s saturated with new information that brings an entirely new perspective into WWII and the inner workings of the lend lease program. Very thought provoking!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mr. M
- 06-01-24
Shocked, depressed, upset
This is not an easy book to listen to. The arguments are well thought out and researched with the primary source material. if we assume everything to be true, then WW2 was a lie. The greatest foundational lie of the century. It wasn't a good war like we are taught in school. it wasn't inevitable. powerful and stupid men made decisions to prolong the war. Stalin and his spy network ate probably single handedly responsible for lengthening the war. FDR is no hero, he is fool. Nothing he did makes sense.
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- M. G. Zink
- 05-07-21
A fresh and disturbing reassessment of WWII
This is a superb book, well worth the time to absorb its nearly 700 pages. This could spark a new assessment of World War II. Josef Stalin is as cruel and ruthless as might be expected. The world leader
who shines less brightly in this book is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR and his inner circle, in particular Harry Hopkins, seem more tarnished, swimming in a toxic cocktail of hubris and naïveté.
This is the third book I have read by Professor McMeekin. He takes full advantage of his access to archives in Russia and other countries that suffered behind the Iron Curtin for so many years.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 05-10-21
The best WW2 book ever
Well, after an interesting introduction, the book unraveled into a great deal of interesting diplomatic and intriguing affairs. I’m very pleased and I highly recommend reading this book!
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6 people found this helpful
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- Cmoon
- 05-11-21
a must listen
From the research to the conclusions and everything in between, this is a fantastic book. I can't recommend it enough. I'll probably buy a hard copy, so I can feel its substance in my hands.
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5 people found this helpful
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- JustinT
- 04-25-24
Long but worth it
Very good listen, a little long to get thru but worth the effort . Added some new perspective to my Ww2 readings so far
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1 person found this helpful
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- Olivia Lovell
- 04-05-22
New Perspective
I'm no historian, so I'm sure there were some biases or inaccuracies that I didn't catch, but overall I enjoyed hearing a perspective on WW2 that we seldom hear about from what I believe to be a very objective point of view. Russia, and more specifically Stalin, played a huge role in the war that is often seen from the US perspective as US vs Hitler (and Japan, which seems to be another thing Americans forget about aside from Pearl Harbor). It's often neglected how Stalin/Russia played both sides - frankly I think it helps bring clarity to how the US is involved in foreign affairs, as well as clarity on how modern day Russia got to be the considerable super power it is today.
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- Somermom
- 03-04-22
Great book!
Fascinating, this is a must listen for anyone interested in a different perspective on the WW2 conflict …… great insight
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