Max Hastings's impressive achievement here is that he has written such a readable one-volume study of the war. The book's readability is largely due to Hastings's inclusion of so many views from soldiers and civilians involved in the action. When the statesmen and generals are heard from, it is more in their human roles, not their official statuses. (For example, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Germany's Ambassador to Britain, insisted to Hitler that Britain would not intervene if Germany … more