Victory at Stalingrad : the battle that changed history /

Soviet expert Roberts (The Unholy Alliance) depicts Hitler's mammoth effort to bring the Russians to their knees and Stalin's struggle to defeat the German troops at any cost in this intelligent introduction to the epic Battle of Stalingrad (1942-3). Interweaving excerpts from the work of contemporary scholars with his own brisk and clear, if not necessarily elegant, narrative, Roberts's historiography enumerates the offensives and counter-offensives, supply chains, military pronouncements and strategies in the siege of the Volga River city that became such a brutal war of attrition. The volume's format bears some similarity to that of a textbook's, with its glossary of terms, biographical notes and guide to further reading. Readers seeking original research and a gripping narrative might want to stick with the Antony Beevor's bestselling 1998 volume on the subject-or for a broader view, Alexander Worth's 1964 Russia at War, as Roberts himself recommends-but those who want a relatively quick and detailed account of this decisive battle will find most of their questions answered here. Also, two concluding sections-covering "the battle that changed history" and "the battle that history changed"-provide an excellent summary of the battle's aftermath both in WWII and in historical memory. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved