A decent book but not great

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I expected more detail in the way of the technical info. This book is unlike other from Hastings in it's tone and it really doesn't suit audio format as you will forget which theatre/belligerent is the focus of each chapter while you pause.

Specifically I wanted to hear about certain aspects of the US/Japanese code war in the Pacific. No mention of the Navajo code talkers etc

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Better read than listened to

This is one of those books that you can better read than listen to. The subject matter is very well treated, the narrator does a well enough job, but a there's a lot to ingest and a regular need to look back a few pages at a name or a date. And that, as we all know, is rather difficult with an audiobook.

5 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

a very comprehensive history of secret warfare.

a bit long but a good narration. Tons of stories about every angle of WWII.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Tedious

Extremely tedious. If I was working on my history PhD and needed a detailed source for names and dates, this would be useful, but not as something to listen to ad nauseam. Good reference book for the shelf, not good as an audio book. Steven Crossley did the best he could with the material he had to work with.

8 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Archival recitation but good.

Recitation for much of the book which made me feel like I was right there at The Archives with the author. the final few chapters were better than the first few chapters. The ending chapter was an excellent recap which I enjoyed more than any other

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Great synthesis of WWII new and old info

Any WWII student must read this. E.g.. USA decrypts vs. Bletchley Park decrypts, and human int. vs. signals int. vs HARD POWER!!!!

Very thorough if somewhat lengthly.

This work is excellent on all accounts although a bit long but the information provided is worth the effort.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Spying--Maybe not so Important after all.

It's unusual for an author to write so much on a subject and conclude that it really wasn't all that important, but that is basically Hastings' thesis. The book looks at espionage and code breaking from the perspective of both the Allied and Axis powers. With the exception of a few cases such as Ultra and the intelligence gained by the US Navy before Midway, spying really did not alter the course of WWII. Either the intel was ignored because it was buried in a surfeit of data or conflicted with political ideology, or countries simply did not have the physical power at the critical point to alter the military outcome. This is a good read nevertheless. It resonates with current-day limitations in combating terrorism. There is a lot of minutia that is instantly forgotten and the book bogs down in spots, but the lives of spies are varied and interesting even if what they did contributed very little to the course of history.

3 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Narrator bland English.

Narrator gives condescending English tone, next time select a woman narrator, preferably with a Scottish, welsh or Irish accent.

1 personne a trouvé cela utile

Eye opener

Makes you wonder, apparently we did a good job as well as being out incomaptenced by the axis.