Why read When Titans Clashed?

Book cover of When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler

Book description

On first publication, this uncommonly concise and readable account of Soviet Russia's clash with Nazi Germany utterly changed our understanding of World War II on Germany's Eastern Front, immediately earning its place among top-shelf histories of the world war. Revised and updated to reflect recent Russian and Western scholarship on…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked When Titans Clashed as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Robert Kirchubel

Author

I give retired US Army Colonel Glantz pride of place here because of his leading role in correcting the history of this conflict. Cold War politics made the Germans ironic but underserving heroes.

Glantz sets the story straight and shows how and why the Soviet Union and Red Army earned the title of victors. This book is very readable and covers the entire four-year war in surprising detail. I consider it a great introduction to his massive body of work.

From Robert's list on The best books on WWII theater: the Nazi-Soviet War.

Andrew Monaghan

Author

The Great Patriotic War is central to Russian politics and thinking about international affairs today. It is important as a symbolic and political reference, but senior military figures often point to the war’s relevance to how Russia should think about war today. There are so many good books to read on this, but I think David Glantz is the doyen of Western historians of the Russian military, and this book is the ideal overview guide to understanding the trajectory and key features of the war: a concise but highly informative examination of one of the most catastrophic wars. Essential reading,…

From Andrew's list on The best books on Russia and why the Kremlin does what it's doing.