Mr. Overy’s imperial emphasis does, at times, play down the role of ideology.

Putin has proved the experts wrong. Still, let’s praise Overy’s stupendous achievement. Anybody interested in the why and how of boundless violence in the 20th century should make space for Blood and Ruins on his or her shelf. It will help you to grasp and revisit the carnage of 1931-45 as the largest event in human history. No continent, no ocean was spared, and Overy deftly weaves all the subplots into one planetary tapestry of merciless ideology and industrialized extermination. This book is not Eurocentric, but truly geocentric.

In his latest book, Overy reprises, updates and expands his coverage of the war. His masterly synthesis of the war’s vast literature and sources has never been bettered. The text may be long but it is unflagging and consistently illuminating. Overy’s narrative is enlivened by personal accounts of the wartime experience and the book’s many statistics tell their own story.

Richard Overy is the master historian of the Second World War and of what he calls the 'morbid age' that preceded it. This book is his magnum opus (in every sense of the phrase). It is a commanding global history of the conflict that brings together its geopolitical and geostrategic elements with a stringent analysis of its many dimensions.

One flaw in Overy’s theory is that it underplays the significance of communism—or rather a fear of it—in both the rise of fascism and the failure of the western democracies to challenge the aggressors until it was too late.

The data, information and insights that Mr Overy musters can occasionally seem overwhelming, but even the most expert reader will emerge knowing more. In his penultimate chapter, he enumerates the crimes and atrocities of the war. It is a tough read.

The data, information and insights that Mr Overy musters can occasionally seem overwhelming, but even the most expert reader will emerge knowing more. In his penultimate chapter, he enumerates the crimes and atrocities of the war. It is a tough read. The capacity of apparently ordinary people to do the most terrible things should no longer come as a surprise, but the extent of barbarous inhumanity remains hard to comprehend.

... a real tour de force on World War II.

A master of technical detail, Overy summarizes the campaigns but concentrates on the backgrounds and decisions of the leaders who, despite rhetoric about freedom, found themselves in a high-tech imperialistic war.

... a dazzling if overstuffed reassessment of WWII.