Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who Turned the Tide in the Second World War - Hardcover

Kennedy, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400067618 ISBN 13: 9781400067619

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2013

Synopsis

Hardback

About this title

Review:

"Superbly written and carefully documented . . . indispensable reading for anyone who seeks to understand how and why the Allies won."--The Christian Science Monitor

"An important contribution to our understanding of World War II . . . Like an engineer who pries open a pocket watch to reveal its inner mechanics, [Paul] Kennedy tells how little-known men and women at lower levels helped win the war."--Michael Beschloss, The New York Times Book Review

"Histories of World War II tend to concentrate on the leaders and generals at the top who make the big strategic decisions and on the lowly grunts at the bottom. . . . [Engineers of Victory] seeks to fill this gap in the historiography of World War II and does so triumphantly. . . . This book is a fine tribute."--The Wall Street Journal

"[Kennedy] colorfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few men who made all the difference."--The Washington Post

"Kennedy has produced a fresh perspective on the war, giving us not just another history of an overfamiliar conflict, but a manual of technical problem-solving, written in the clearest and most compelling style, that could still prove useful to modern management today."--The Telegraph (UK)

"This superb book is Kennedy's best."--Foreign Affairs

"Paul Kennedy . . . has thus achieved a notable feat in bringing a large dose of common sense, historical insight and detailed knowledge to bear in his refreshing study of what might be called the material history of the second world war. . . . This material history of strategy asks the right questions, disposes of clichés and gives rich accounts of neglected topics."--Financial Times

"Paul Kennedy's history of World War II is a demonstration not only of incisive analysis and mastery of subject, but of profound integrity, and a historian's desire to celebrate not great leaders but the forgotten scientists, technicians, and logisticians who gave us the tactical edge, without which the strategic designs could never have been achieved."--Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Revenge of Geography

"Kennedy's fine-grained analysis and suspicion of any one single cause--like cipher cracking, intelligence and deception operations, or specific weapons systems, like the Soviet T-34 tank--permit him to persuasively array his supporting facts. . . . An absorbing new approach to a well-worked field."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A fresh and stimulating approach."--Publishers Weekly

From the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover:

'Consistently original ... Like an engineer who pries open a pocket watch to reveal its inner mechanics, Kennedy tells how little-known men and woman at lower levels helped win the war ... An important contribution to our understanding' Michael Beschloss, The New York Times Book Review

How, when it came down to it, did the Allies win the Second World War? How did they win the Battle of the Atlantic, blunt the Nazi blitzkrieg, work out how to land successfully on an enemy held shore on D-Day, and 'hop' across the islands of the Pacific to assault the Japanese mainland?

Here Paul Kennedy reveals the role of the problem-solvers and middle-men who made it happen - such as Major-General Perry Hobart, who invented the 'funny tanks' which flattened the D-Day beaches; or Captain 'Johnny' Walker, who worked out how to sink U-boats with a 'creeping barrage'. This book, by brilliantly answering the 'how' question, shows the conflict in an entirely new light.

'Compelling, lucid and original ... Kennedy has produced a fresh perspective on the war' Nigel Jones, Sunday Telegraph

'His refreshing study ... asks the right questions, disposes of clichés and gives a rich account of neglected topics' David Edgerton, Financial Times

'Colourfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few people who made all the difference' Washington Post

'This first-rate book makes us reflect on the past and also leads us to think more deeply about the present and future' Graham Farmelo, Times Higher Education

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1400067618
• ISBN 13: 9781400067619
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 436