''All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945'' is a 2011 book by historian
Max Hastings
Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings (; born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist and military historian, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Telegraph'', and editor of the ''Evening Standard'' ...
, covering the history of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
and complementing Hastings' earlier works ''Overlord'', ''Armageddon'' and ''Nemesis''. In the United States, it was published under the title ''Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945''.
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Synopsis
''All Hell Let Loose'' covers the entire span of World War II, following the military developments of the war but focusing on the reactions and experiences of different individuals (both uniformed and civilian).[ Reviews refer to the book as an "]everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin
The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...
's story" made up of accounts from those with lesser roles in the conflict; "ranging from ship's cooks to wireless operators, farmers and housewives to typists and black marketeers."[
The book addresses several "triumphalist" aspects of written war history by focusing on the "misery, heroism and endurance" of individual accounts.][ Hastings concludes that whilst the Nazis fought individual battles well, their overall ]war effort
In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative si ...
showed "stunning incompetence".[
]
Critical reception
Martin Rubin, writing in the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
'', gave a positive review, calling ''All Hell Let Loose'' "a true distillation of everything this historian has learned from a lifetime of scholarship".[ In a review in '']The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'', Ian Thomson noted the book's British-centric Western Front narrative, although not ignoring other aspects of the war, and called it "immensely long, but extremely readable". Thomson also says that Hastings has "a faint antipathy towards foreigners".[ Jonathan Sumption criticised the book's "relentlessly pessimistic message" and says that the everyman perspective gives a distorted view of the war.][
''All Hell Let Loose'' was named as one of '']The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
s Books of the Year 2011, in the category of History Books.[
]
References
External links
*
* {{cite web, url=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/book/article-23992338-all-hell-let-loose-by-max-hastings---review.do, title=All Hell Let Loose by Max Hastings - review, author=Ian Kershaw, date=29 September 2011, access-date=2011-11-30, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202183817/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/book/article-23992338-all-hell-let-loose-by-max-hastings---review.do, archive-date=2011-12-02, url-status=dead
''After Words'' interview with Hastings on ''Inferno'', December 3, 2011
2011 non-fiction books
HarperCollins books
History books about World War II