November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II

Unlike other histories of World War II, Englund focuses on one critical month, as lived by military members and civilian residents of many nations. His earlier book, The Beauty and the Sorrow, produced this sort of granular treatment for World War I. It is an effective method, as each episode runs less than a page and shifts to another scene happening around the same time. Showcasing the war at this level reveals that even participants in decisive battles seldom realized that the tide of the war was turning. In North Africa, around Stalingrad, on Guadalcanal, and at sea, Axis forces were defeated for the first time. Diary excerpts and Englund’s descriptions also recount how the war upended lives. Vera Brittain, Albert Camus, and Vasily Grossman, among the 40 subjects of the book, were swept along. Soldiers, sailors, and aircrew endured and risked much. American civilians, far from battlefields or bombing raids, coped with rationing and blackouts. Englund’s extensive footnotes clarify some situations, but readers may find that it distracts from the narratives.