Fulminata reviewed Stalingrad by David M. Glantz (Modern war studies)
Review of 'Stalingrad' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
According to the preface, the authors set out to write this book in 1998, but soon realized that they would need more than one book to cover everything that needed to be covered. Eventually they would go on to write a four volume “trilogy” plus an additional fifth companion volume of primary source material.
After completing that epic work, they returned to the project that they had originally set out to do by distilling it down to this single volume.
Having read 3 of the 4 volumes of the Stalingrad “Trilogy”, I recommend starting with this volume, and then moving on to that larger work if you are interested in yet more detail. Indeed, if you have no previous knowledge of the battle, you’d be best off starting with an even more abbreviated summary of events, such as Stalingrad 1942 by Osprey Publishing, or something similar.
The biggest weakness of …
According to the preface, the authors set out to write this book in 1998, but soon realized that they would need more than one book to cover everything that needed to be covered. Eventually they would go on to write a four volume “trilogy” plus an additional fifth companion volume of primary source material.
After completing that epic work, they returned to the project that they had originally set out to do by distilling it down to this single volume.
Having read 3 of the 4 volumes of the Stalingrad “Trilogy”, I recommend starting with this volume, and then moving on to that larger work if you are interested in yet more detail. Indeed, if you have no previous knowledge of the battle, you’d be best off starting with an even more abbreviated summary of events, such as Stalingrad 1942 by Osprey Publishing, or something similar.
The biggest weakness of the book, as in the larger volume it summarizes, is the use of what I assume are primary source maps shrunk down to fit into book format, leading to an often unreadable mess that offers little to no help in understanding the situation being described in the text. I eventually just stopped even trying to figure out the maps, and skipped over most of them.
Overall, I think this volume is not for someone who has just a passing interest in the subject, but is for anyone with more than a passing interest, whether or not they then go on to read the larger “trilogy”. Just be warned that it’s a dry read, but if you’ve read anything else by David Glantz, then you know what you are getting into.