Stalins War, Sean McMeekin
Stalins War, Sean McMeekin
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Stalin's War
A New History of World War II

Author: Sean McMeekin

Narrator: Kevin Stillwell

Unabridged: 24 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 04/20/2021

Synopsis

A prize-winning historian reveals how Stalin—not Hitler—was the animating force of World War II in this major new history.

World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia—and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple theaters, his empire did not span the Eurasian continent, and he did not inherit any of the spoils of war. That central role belonged to Joseph Stalin. The Second World War was not Hitler’s war; it was Stalin’s war.
 
Drawing on ambitious new research in Soviet, European, and US archives, Stalin’s War revolutionizes our understanding of this global conflict by moving its epicenter to the east. Hitler’s genocidal ambition may have helped unleash Armageddon, but as McMeekin shows, the war which emerged in Europe in September 1939 was the one Stalin wanted, not Hitler. So, too, did the Pacific war of 1941–1945 fulfill Stalin’s goal of unleashing a devastating war of attrition between Japan and the “Anglo-Saxon” capitalist powers he viewed as his ultimate adversary.
 
McMeekin also reveals the extent to which Soviet Communism was rescued by the US and Britain’s self-defeating strategic moves, beginning with Lend-Lease aid, as American and British supply boards agreed almost blindly to every Soviet demand. Stalin’s war machine, McMeekin shows, was substantially reliant on American materiél from warplanes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, to industrial inputs and technology transfer, to the foodstuffs which fed the Red Army.
 
This unreciprocated American generosity gave Stalin’s armies the mobile striking power to conquer most of Eurasia, from Berlin to Beijing, for Communism.
 
A groundbreaking reassessment of the Second World War, Stalin’s War is essential reading for anyone looking to understand the current world order.
 

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on September 16, 2022

This is a bold and provocative book. McMeekin describes WW2 through a Soviet lens and argues that while Hitler is often viewed as the center of the action, it would be more appropriate to think of Stalin and the Soviet Union as the common thread running through the various conflicts. The Soviet Unio......more

Goodreads review by Boudewijn on December 05, 2021

Sean McMeekin is an American historian, focused on European history of the early 20th century with a speciality in Russia. In this book, McMeekin claims that there is more reason to call the second world war Stalin’s war than Hitler’s war. This is because if you look at the result, it is Stalin who......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on August 10, 2022

The Chess Grandmaster. Stalin’s War by Sean Mckeekin is refreshing, thoughtful and ultimately spectacular. It is the inconvenient truth we have been waiting for. Let’s tackle these parts first: it’s well written, flows perfectly and is easy to understand. The man is a good writer. Now onto the content......more

Goodreads review by Marks54 on May 21, 2021

Sean McMeekin has written a one volume history of WW2 from the perspective of Stalin and the Soviet Union. In doing so, he makes good use of newly available Soviet archives, as well as updated research on a variety of aspects of the war. The result is an engaging and sharply toned view of the war th......more

Goodreads review by Bozidar on June 22, 2023

One of the few bad history books that I have read. This book sometimes reads more like a polemic than history, and it comes dangerously close to being pro-Axis (such as describing the Hull Note as an “ultimatum”, which it was not, or barely mentioning Nazi crimes in comparison to how much he details......more

Quotes

“A provocative revisionist take on the Second World War...an accomplished, fearless, and enthusiastic ‘myth buster’...McMeekin is a formidable researcher, working in several languages, and he is prepared to pose the big questions and make judgments….The story of the war itself is well told and impressive in its scope, ranging as it does from the domestic politics of small states such as Yugoslavia and Finland to the global context. It reminds us, too, of what Soviet ‘liberation’ actually meant for eastern Europe….McMeekin is right that we have for too long cast the second world war as the good one. His book will, as he must hope, make us re-evaluate the war and its consequences.”—Financial Times

“Brilliantly inquisitive.”—National Review

“Sean McMeekin’s revisionist Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II isn’t just one of the most compelling histories written about the war this year, it’s one of the best ever. I doubt anyone who reads it will think about the Second World War in the same way.”—David Harsanyi, The Federalist's Notable Books of 2021

“The volume is impressive even by the standard of histories of the second world war…The book is well researched and very well written. It puts forward new ideas and revives some old ones to challenge current mainstream interpretations of the conflict… a new look at the conflict, which poses new questions and, one should add, provides new and often unexpected answers to the old ones.”—Guardian

“Indispensable… There are new books every year that promise ‘a new history’ of such a well-studied subject as World War II, but McMeekin actually delivers on that promise.”—Christian Science Monitor

“McMeekin is a superb writer. There isn’t a boring page in the book. His familiarity with the archives of several countries is extraordinary.”—The Times (UK)

“This remarkable book… meticulously researched, elegantly written… Stalin’s War is that rare thing: a book that forces us to think again, and to challenge our narrative of that most well-trodden subject.”—BBC History Magazine

“Criticisms of the British for living in a Second World War past are frequent. Sean McMeekin, professor of history at Bard College and a talented scholar of the First World War, takes an alternative view by arguing that we are generally living in the wrong war. Drawing on an impressive array of international archives, McMeekin…directs attention to Soviet activity….The book is pertinent because of the extent to which modern cultural wars draw on historicised identities and historical controversies.”—The Critic (UK)

“Based on a vast amount of research.”—Prospect (UK)

“In considering the war from a global perspective and shifting the focus from a Eurocentric view, he [McMeekin] provides a refreshing corrective that takes in areas of the war often overlooked by westerners.” —The Spectator (UK)

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