This is the ultimate history of the Blitz and bombing in the Second World War, from Wolfson Prize-winning historian and author Richard Overy. The use of massive fleets of bombers to kill and terrorize civilians was an aspect of the Second World War which continues to challenge the idea that Allies specifically fought a 'moral' war. For Britain, bombing became perhaps its principal contribution to the fighting as, night after night, exceptionally brave men flew over occupied Europe destroying its cities. The Bombing War radically overhauls our understanding of the War. It is the first book to examine seriously not just the most well-known parts of the campaign, but the significance of bombing on many other fronts — the German use of bombers on the Eastern Front for example (as well as much newly discovered material on the more familiar 'Blitz' on Britain), or the Allied campaigns against Italian cities. The result is the author's masterpiece — a rich, gripping, picture of the Second World War and the terrible military, technological and ethical issues that relentlessly drove all its participants into an abyss.

The Battle of Britain tells the extraordinary story of one of the pivotal events of the Second World War — the struggle between British and German air forces in the late summer and autumn of 1940. Exposing many of the myths surrounding the conflict, the book provides answers to important questions: how close did Britain really come to invasion; what were Hitler and Churchill's motives; and, what was the battle's real effect on the outcome of the war. Told with great clarity and objectivity, this is a superb introduction to a defining moment in our history. 'No individual British victory after Trafalgar was more decisive in challenging the course of a major war than was the Battle of Britain... In his carefully argued, clearly explained and impressively documented book... Richard Overy is at pains to dispose of the myths and expose the real history of what he does not doubt was a great British victory... the best historical analysis in readable form which has yet appeared on this prime subject' — Noble Frankland, The Times Literary Supplement.

They presided over the most destructive regimes in history, murdered millions and fought the most barbarous war the world had seen. Yet countless Germans and Russians worshipped them and the values they stood for. How did Hitler and Stalin come to cast such a shadow over the twentieth century? Richard Overy’s acclaimed history is the first to examine both the two regimes and the people who lived under them: how dictatorship became possible, the use of terror, the camp systems, the bond between leader and followers, and, above all, how these men managed to draw the wide consent that enabled them to kill on such a colossal scale.