Best Books About World War 2: 10 That Show the War from Every Side

World War 2 produced more books than any other conflict in history. The problem is not finding a book about it. The problem is finding one worth reading. This list cuts through the noise and picks ten titles that either tell stories you have not heard, or tell familiar stories in ways that make them feel new. ## 1. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer Shirer was a journalist in Berlin during the Nazi rise to power and a witness to events most historians only read about in documents. His account of how Germany moved from democracy to dictatorship remains the most detailed single-volume history of the Third Reich. It is long, but every chapter earns its place. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671728687?tag=31813-20) ## 2. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand Louis Zamperini survived a plane crash in the Pacific, 47 days adrift on a raft, and years in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. Hillenbrand's account of his survival reads like fiction but is entirely true. It is one of the most gripping nonfiction books ever written about the Pacific theatre. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812974492?tag=31813-20) ## 3. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Nothing written since has captured the experience of hiding from the Nazis the way Anne Frank's diary does. The diary is remarkable not because of what happens at the end, which every reader knows, but because of how ordinary life continued inside the Secret Annex. Birthdays, arguments, crushes, and dreams, recorded against the backdrop of a continent at war. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553296981?tag=31813-20) ## 4. With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge Sledge fought at Peleliu and Okinawa, two of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific. His memoir is the most honest account of what ground combat felt like in that war: the heat, the filth, the dead, and the way combat changes a person permanently. It later formed the basis for the HBO series The Pacific. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0891418083?tag=31813-20) ## 5. Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose The story of Easy Company, 506th Infantry, from training through D-Day, Market Garden, and the liberation of Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Ambrose interviewed the surviving veterans and wove their accounts into a narrative that balances military history with personal stories. The HBO miniseries that followed is outstanding, but the book came first. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743224558?tag=31813-20) ## 6. Stalingrad by Antony Beevor The battle of Stalingrad killed more people than the entire American involvement in World War 2. Beevor draws on Soviet and German archives to tell both sides of the siege, from the opening German advance in summer 1942 to the surrender of the Sixth Army in February 1943. This is the book that showed how history could be written about the Eastern Front from both perspectives. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140284583?tag=31813-20) ## 7. Night by Elie Wiesel Wiesel was 15 when he and his family were transported to Auschwitz. Night is his account of what happened there and at Buchenwald. It is 120 pages long and takes about two hours to read. It will stay with you for years. Of all the literature about the Holocaust, Night remains the most direct account of what the camps were. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374500010?tag=31813-20) ## 8. The Second World War by Antony Beevor If you want a single volume that covers the entire war from the invasion of Poland to the bombing of Hiroshima, Beevor's global history is the one to read. He covers theatres that most Western accounts ignore, including the war in China and the fighting in North Africa, and he is consistently clear about strategy and consequences. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316023744?tag=31813-20) ## 9. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom Corrie ten Boom and her family hid Jewish refugees in their Dutch home during the German occupation. When they were caught, Corrie and her sister were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. This is her account of that experience and how her faith survived it. It is one of the most widely read books about resistance and survival from the war. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0800794052?tag=31813-20) ## 10. Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts Churchill is inseparable from the story of World War 2, but most biographies either lionize or undermine him. Roberts had access to the diaries of King George VI and to private papers not previously available to biographers. The result is the most balanced and thorough life of Churchill yet written, covering his entire career with the war years at its center. [Check price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0670025852?tag=31813-20) --- These ten books give you the war from multiple angles: German, American, British, Soviet, Jewish, and civilian. Start with any of them and you will find yourself reaching for the next.