What They Didn't Teach You About World War II (What They Didn't Teach You (Hardcover))

Rating:
Summary: Lively not dryly giving you the history of WW II
Review: I am sure some history buffs out there after noisly clearing their throats of the dust they have inhaled after reading many a weighty volume of history will state that this book is light. Just shut them up in their moldy room and leave them alone.

This book is lively exploring the history of World War II in small painless (if not fun) chugs.

The book is broken down into themes and explores the war from the battle front to the homefront. What did celebrities do during the big one? How were women and child affected. How was it like to go to boot camp? These questions are answered along with many more in a quirky and fun style.

Verdict: A great book to get someone into history without scaring them off. A nice book to read on the train (you should never read while driving your car- you might miss a chapter).

I am going to seek out the other books in this series.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book -- fills in the pieces
Review: I've got many other books about World War 2 on my shelf. I've got Ambrose, Keegan, Ryan, and the rest. What this book does though, is not analyse battles or strategy. It fills in the rest of the information that you don't get in history textbooks, and really gives all flavor to anyone's knowledge of World War 2.

The writing style makes one seem like one has a favorite relative or teacher telling stories about the war -- not that you're reading a book.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad for a subjective viewpoint . . .
Review: Some interesting information, though I could tell that the author is a left-wing liberal. In the section "Leaders Who Went to War" he talks about all the presidents who served in WWII. When discussing any Republicans, he tends to be negative, and when dicussing any Democrats, he glosses over any failings they may have had. Also when dicussing the prejudices that minorities and women faced then, he criticizes from today's viewpoint. However much we may dislike a part of history that doesn't toe the line with our politically correct times, we must see them in relevance to that period in history. What happened then was wrong, but we have made great strides since then. I have always considered myself an indepedent in political terms and if I had written this book or one like it, I would tried tried a little harder than Mr. Wright to keep my biases out of it. When I read history, I want the facts, not subjective opinions based on someone else's political leanings.

Rating:
Summary: What They Can't Teach You!
Review: The criticism of academic history taught in schools is that it is an endless list of dates, battles, and important people. Because anything other than such strictly objective facts can create a controversy. Concentrating on the lives of the common people would not have been politically correct in older times.

Mike Wright's experience as a TV writer and producer allows him to pick interesting stories to educate and entertain the reader. The nine pages of Bibliography must have omitted over nine-tenths of the books published in the previous fifty years. I'll guess he could have written nine more books on WW II without repetition.

This book should be read as an overall guide to WW II history, or as an introduction to the many, many books that deal with a particular topic - in English.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad for a subjective viewpoint . . .
Review: The title has it right. The things inside definitely did not make their way into my teachers' classrooms. Now I try to make them appear in mine. This book has a lot of interest in it, and the sections imply discussing notable people of today who were in the war I found very interesting. Few places focus on more than Clark Gable or Jimmy Stewart's roles, but this was more comprehensive.
Altogether, it's books like this that have fueled the explosion in historical learning the past few years, and should answer some long-held questions you may have had about the Second World War.

Rating:
Summary: Some interesting stuff, but not that unique
Review: There is some interesting stuff in this book, but it's not the treasure trove of trivia that the back cover's reviews make it out to be. A lot of the information in the book can be found out by reading one of the large single-volume WWII books. And you get a complete history of the war with those, and without the editorializing.

And the editorializing in the book shows that Mr. Wright must have liberal leanings, since he writes from the perspective of today's political correctness with no regard for the times or for the simple fact that war is messy, and decisions need to be made in the heat of battle without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.

Rating:
Summary: Especially recommended for school use and study
Review: This fine overview presents an intriguing examination of World War II history facts which are little-known. One might expect a 'trivia' type of question and answer format, but What They Didn't Teach You About World War II provides such historical facts in chapter form which makes it especially recommended for school use and study.