Second World War Reading List
Explore a curated list of books on Second World War History, offering critical perspectives on one of the most significant periods in modern history….
Second World War
Fairytale of Rothenburg – Marek Kohn
Marek Kohn, the author of The Stories Old Towns Tell, describes the Christmas market in the medieval German town of Rothenburg and reveals a…
A Little History of the World – 50 Years in 50 Books
Rather than focusing on dry facts and dates, E. H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World vividly brings the full span of human…
Women in Intelligence by Helen Fry – 50 Years in 50 Books
Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars by Helen Fry is due to be published on 26th September 2023. In this…
Illustrating Spymaster by Helen Fry: A Q&A with Rui Ricardo
Thomas Kendrick (1881–1972) was central to the British Secret Service from its beginnings through to the Second World War. Under the guise of “British Passport…
Bruno Lohse, Nazi art plunderer – An extract from Goering’s Man in Paris
Jonathan Petropoulos— I remember clearly my first meeting with Bruno Lohse in June 1998 at the Zentralinstitut in Munich. It was a hot summer…
An A-Z of the World – E. H. Gombrich on: the Second World War
As an aid to students, teachers and parents, we have constructed an A–Z of the World taken from E. H. Gombrich’s, A Little History…
A Schoolmaster’s War – an extract from Harry Rée’s wartime diaries
Escape Into Art, Look Through the Lens of History, Seek Certainty in Science … To help us all keep on reading over the coming…
Einstein on the Run: How Britain Saved the World’s Greatest Scientist
In autumn 1933, Albert Einstein found himself living alone in an isolated holiday hut in rural England. There, he toiled peacefully at mathematics while…
Bletchley Park and D-Day: A Q&A with David Kenyon
Since the secret of Bletchley Park was revealed in the 1970s, the work of its codebreakers has become one of the most famous stories…
Nazi Germany and Modernist art
Culture was integral to the smooth running of the Third Reich. During the war, the arts were closely tied to the Nazi propaganda machine…
The Kremlin Letters: David Reynolds on the correspondence of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin
For nearly four years, and against all the odds, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin led the most effective alliance in history. Yet…
Mussolini and Hitler – Christian Goeschel
Christian Goeschel- On 20 July 1944, a bomb exploded in the Wolf’s Lair, Adolf Hitler’s East Prussian Headquarters. The Nazi leader survived. Hours later,…
Griselda Pollock explores the life and work of artist Charlotte Salomon
‘She found herself facing the question of whether to commit suicide or to undertake something wildly crazy.’ – from Life? or Theatre? by Charlotte…
The First Victory: An Introduction
Andrew Stewart introduces his new book The First Victory: The Second World War and the East Africa Campaign, a riveting account of the long-overlooked achievement…