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Historical Bookshelf
Home / Historical Periods / World War II

War

World War II

1939–1945 CE

World War II began in Europe in 1939 after Germany invaded Poland, though war in Asia had already been under way. The Axis powers fought the Allies across Europe, North Africa, the Atlantic, Asia and the Pacific. The conflict involved blitzkrieg, strategic bombing, occupation, genocide, amphibious invasion, intelligence work and nuclear weapons.

Its significance is global and structural: empires weakened, borders shifted, civilian populations became central targets and the United States and Soviet Union emerged as superpowers. The war also generated immense personal narratives of displacement, resistance, captivity and survival. It is one of the strongest anchor categories for both literary historical fiction and commercial series fiction.

World War II fiction has a very large reading audience, from Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See and Kate Atkinson's Life After Life to Robert Harris, Alan Furst, Herman Wouk, Kristin Hannah and Ken Follett. Series and thrillers often use occupied Europe, intelligence work, resistance networks, codebreaking, naval war and family survival as their core material. These entries should therefore support both literary novels and high-conversion series pages for wartime, espionage, Holocaust, home-front and military fiction.

Related people for World War II

Adolf Hitler1889–1945 Alan Turing1912–1954 Albert Speer Archibald Clark Kerr1882–1951 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington1769–1852 Benito Mussolini1883–1945 Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881 Bernard Montgomery1887–1976 Boudica30–61 Charles de Gaulle1890–1970 Charles George Gordon1833–1885 Chester W. Nimitz Chūichi Nagumo Colin Gubbins1896–1976 Cordell Hull Douglas MacArthur Eleanor Rooseveltborn 1960 Elizabeth I1533–1603 Erwin Rommel1891–1944 Eva Braun1912–1945 Francis Drake1540–1596 Franklin D. Roosevelt1882–1945 George III1738–1820 George S. Patton George VI1895–1952 George Washington1732–1799 Gerd von Rundstedt Giacomo Casanova1725–1798 Giuseppe Garibaldi1807–1882 Haile Selassie1892–1975 Harry S. Truman1884–1972 Heinrich Himmler1900–1945 Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston1784–1865 Henry VIII1491–1547 Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener1850–1916 Hiroo Onoda Horatio Nelson1758–1805 Isoroku Yamamoto Jomo Kenyatta1893–1978 Joseph Chamberlain1836–1914 Joseph Goebbels1897–1945 Joseph McCarthy1908–1957 Joseph Rochefort Joseph Stalin1878–1953 Joséphine de Beauharnais1763–1814 Karl Brandt1904–1948 Kim Il Sung1890–1969 Louis XIV1638–1715 Luisa Casati1881–1957 Lyudmila Pavlichenko1916–1974 Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948 Mao Zedong1893–1976 Margaret Thatcher1925–2013 Marie Antoinette1755–1793 Menelik II1844–1913 Mitsuru Ushijima Muhammad Ahmad1844–1885 Napoleon1769–1821 Napoleon III1808–1873 Neville Chamberlain1869–1940 Oda Nobunaga Oliver Cromwell1599–1658 Omar Bradley Otto von Bismarck1815–1898 Paul Kruger1825–1904 Paul Tibbets Prince George, Duke of Kent1902–1942 Prince Philipp of Hesse1896–1980 Reinhard Heydrich1904–1942 Robert Clive1725–1774 Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald1775–1860 Tokugawa Ieyasu Toyotomi Hideyoshi Ulysses S. Grantborn 1946 Victoria1819–1901 W. Averell Harriman1891–1986 Walter Raleigh1552–1618 Wernher von Braun1912–1977 William E. Fairbairn1885–1960 William Pitt the Younger1759–1806 William Randolph Hearst1863–1951 William the Conqueror1028–1087 Winston Churchill1874–1965

Series

Series about World War II (4 series)

Combined Operations in Order

by Griff Hosker 12 books 4.4

Combined Operations follows Tom Harsker and a commando unit through the Second World War and into Korea. The series begins with Britain under pressure in 1940 and moves through raids, occupied Europe, Dieppe, Sicily, D-Day, the Scheldt and the final advance into Germany before shifting to the Korean…

Rifleman in Order

by Griff Hosker 2 books 4.5

Rifleman follows John Sharratt from wartime loss and conscription into the British Army during the Second World War. The sequence moves from the Blitz and training into the North African desert, where ordinary infantry experience the pressure of modern war, retreat, endurance and battle against Rommel’s forces.

The Warsaw Quartet in Order

by Douglas Jackson 4 books 4.5

The Warsaw Quartet follows Jan Kalisz, a former senior Polish investigator forced to work for the German criminal police after the occupation of Warsaw. Secretly serving the Polish resistance, Kalisz investigates murders that the occupying authorities value according to the nationality and usefulness of the victims, while concealing…

Books

Books about World War II (30 books)

Bestselling authors first, then star rating.

Non Fiction

Non Fiction about World War II (67 books)

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.