Armageddon: The Reality Behind the Distortions,: Myths, Lies, Illusions of World War II

by Clive Ponting

Book Overview

This fresh, revisionist examination of World War II covers its huge subject by categories, and debunks many of the convenient myths that have grown up about the conflict, using irrefutable statistics... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679436022
• ISBN13: 9780679436027
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Should be a textbook

I believe that books on War should talk about the social as well as the political consequences of it not just who fought whom on what specific date - which is why most American Civil War Books bore me. Ponting tells the story in such ease you wonder if this is the same World War Two you've been previously reading about? Though his Credentials seems solid, like the other reviewers I agree that this screams for more documentation to back up his research, otherwise you get the slight feeling in the back of your head that something may be amiss, and this is too well put together to be dismissed as some sort of made-up theories. Indeed much of the books materials I've also seen in updated, revisionist History Documentaries. Especially those that deal with the conflicts in dispensing fairness, as well as racial/ethnic considerations that went into the major War decisions. If I were taking a class in World War Two, this would be the primary textbook I would want, but I would hope the class would be required to challenge and research this book to confirm or deny his findings and conclusions and (most importantly),say why! Any result will change what many people thought of the "Last Great War!"

most facts right,a few entirely wrong

This is another book to disabuse those who like their History cartoon fashion.Mr Ponting knows his stuff, but gets very off track at page 170, reversing the order of the developement of the Tiger and Panther tanks.Seemingly throughly confused,he then gives the Tiger a 75mm gun.On the next page ,hr describes as aircraft failures the He 177 and the Ju 88.He's right about the He 177,but dead wrong about the Ju 88.It's always suprisihg how these errors slip through.

World War Two - The Truth at Last

Clive Ponting's book contains a wealth of factual detail, lending it an unnassailable authority. The book is consistently thought-provoking, often unnerving and sometimes shocking. And it is the wartime Allies that take all the hits. Smug feelings of absolute moral superiority concerning World War Two are shattered by this book. Never again can the War be regarded as an unblemished crusade against evil. Take Ponting's comments on collaborationist attitudes in all Allied countries; or his record of Allied atrocites, such as the bombing of Dresden or the barbaric expulsion of the Prussians; or, worst of all, the exposure of Britain's and France's cynical original war aims. These revelations can only serve to tarnish many a cherished reputation. For that reason the book will never be popular, for example, in a Britain that bizarrely looks on the War as some kind of golden age of unity and righteousness.This book is of huge importance, because it fills a yawning gap in Twentieth Century history.

Some troubling aspects of the good war.

A must for those history buffs who have swallowed the line about "the good war." Ponting's "1940" should also be read. His chapter 9 should be mandatory for all. The people of Eastern Europe were occupied by both the Nazis and the Soviets. This caused the father of our former Army chief of Staff to actually fight on Hitler's side. Was he a Nazi? Probably not; simply a Georgian yearning for freedom from Stalin's tyranny. We do not remember that while Hitler was defeated the Soviet menace was resuscitated for fifty years and the miracle is that it finally self-destructed.Our Justice Department is still seeking those Eastern Europeans who fought on Hitler's side. We care not that our ally Stalin killed some 65 million of his own people and his hit men were never placed in the dock by the allies. In fact, they were the judges at the trials.The Japanese got off fairly easy after devastating their Asian neighbors. This is only a small part of the book. Its main failing is that sources are not properly identified except for a short bibliography