Superb and enthralling - highly recommended.

Where does The Second World War, Part One: The Phoney War to Stalingrad rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Excellent Audible history - up there with the rude boys.

Have you listened to any of Sean Barrett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator is excellent. This is a long listen, so the narration is especially important and Sean Barrett's clarity, diction and expression are first class.

Any additional comments?

The mix of grand strategic overview mixed with the words of soldiers and civilians make this brilliantly written history extremely engrossing. I'm eagerly looking forward to Part 2.

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This will become the seminal work on WWII

Truly global in its scope, any serious study of the war will necessarily include a careful reading of this work.

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Expected more from Antony Beevor

Great run over the second world war. But nothing new for those who have studied it already. Best on the Western campaigns and less in-depth on the complex Japanese/Chinese conflict. Hoped that Antony Beevor with his detailed knowledge would have tried to maintain an analytical overview of the war. However, instead he leads us through battle to battle and campaign to campaign in his usual entertaining style with lots of specific stories to bring the scenes alive. Maybe I was expecting too much.

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Astonishing

An amazing story told by an amazing historian and narrated by a great narrator.
Great Audiobook

Excellent

A marvelous example of outstanding history writing.No finer attempt at such a mammoth task exists( as far as I am aware).

Incredible and expansive.

The second world war, what a huge subject and yet Mr Beever succeeds in every way in interweaving battlefield history with stories of the main decision makers, the ordinary soldiers, and the every day people caught up in this momentous, earth shaking apocalypse.
This is way more than just a story of a war, it should be required reading for all high school students in the hope that future generations will never see the like of it again.
Take a bow Mr Beever, you have made this appalling, complex event that saw the death of 60 million people, totally readable and accessible to all
We will never learn from history if it is sanitised

Outstanding history, variable performance

Beevor’s histories are outstanding examples of deep research, a clear eyed understanding of politics and outstanding storytelling. This history of WW2 is among his best works.

The only real issue here is Sean Barrett‘s narration, which is at its best when he simply delivers the prose, and at its worst as he delivers an array of accents, and impressions including Churchill, Roosevelt and Hitler. It’s a minor irritation but over an audiobook that exceeds 35 hours it becomes grating and unnecessary.

That said, the power of the story overcomes minor stylistic audio book annoyances. Highly recommended.

I recommend this book so much! I loved it.

I especially liked the way things were put into more personal perspective, and also that it was very interesting and easy to follow.

good

very well written , the author's concluding observations are worth remembering . it was a great book.

A compact, yet satisfying, history of the war

A great listen for Causal history enthusiasts. The writer did a fantastic job of cramming so much complicated history in this book, and he did it in an engaging and easy to follow manor.