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

Kennedy, Paul

3.84

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9781846141126: Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers who Turned the Tide in the Second World War

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846141125 ISBN 13: 9781846141126

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2013

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From Paul Kennedy, author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, one of the most acclaimed history books of recent decades, Engineers of Victory is a new account of how the tide was turned against the Nazis by the Allies in the Second World War.

In January 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt and the Combined Chiefs of Staff met in Casablanca to review the western Allies' war aims and strategy. They realised that to attain their ultimate aim of 'unconditional surrender' they would have to achieve some formidable objectives - win control of the Atlantic sea-lanes and command of the air over the whole of West-Central Europe, work out how to land on an enemy-held shore so that Continental Europe could be retaken, how to blunt the Nazi blitzkrieg that a successful invasion would undoubtedly provoke, and finally how to 'hop' across the islands of the Pacific to assault the Japanese mainland. Eighteen months later on, as Paul Kennedy writes, 'these operational aims were either accomplished or close to being so.'

The history of the Second World War is often told as a grand narrative. The focus of this book, by contrast, is on the problem-solvers - Major-General Perry Hobart, who invented the 'funny tanks' which flattened the curve on the D-Day beaches; Flight Lieutenant Ronnie Harker 'the man who put the Merlin in the Mustang'; Captain 'Johnny' Walker, the convoy captain who worked out how to sink U-boats with a 'creeping barrage'. The result is a fresh perspective on the greatest, conflict in human history.

PAUL KENNEDY is one of the world's best-selling and most influential historians. He is the author or editor of nineteen books, including The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which has been translated into over twenty languages, Preparing for the Twenty-First Century, The Parliament of Man and the now classic Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery.

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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 clich�s 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 clich�s 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

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