A reassessment of the immense six-year conflict of World War II through the lens of separate campaigns fought in Europe, Asia, and the Mediterranean . "Corrigan . . . combines scholarship, presentation, and insight for this operational-level military history. . . . A useful read." — Publishers Weekly A definitive single-volume military history of World War II, Gordon Corrigan's The Second World War reveals the vastly diverse ways in which each campaign was waged against very different enemies who rarely, if ever, coordinated their efforts. Corrigan, who has developed a scholarly reputation of challenging long-held historical assumptions, examines the agendas of the warring nations and offers fresh and vivid interpretations of how the war was fought and how it was won. In particular, the author dispels myths regarding the effectiveness of the American and British war efforts and brings the contributions of the Russian armies to the forefront. Vast in vision and epic in scope, The Second World War will change forever the way we think about the titanic conflicts that decided the shape of the modern world.