New History Books 2013

The list below is of the most popular history books published in 2013 so far.  Popularity is based upon the number of circulations the book has had since January. Engineers of victory the problem solvers who turned the tide in the Second World War by Paul Kennedy New York Times Bestseller Paul Kennedy, the award winning author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and one of today’s most renowned historians, now provides a new and unique look at how World War II was won." Engineers of Victory is a fascinating nuts-and-bolts account of the strategic factors that led to Allied victory. The Hopkins touch Harry Hopkins and the forging of the alliance to defeat Hitler by David L. Roll David Roll shows how Harry Hopkins, an Iowa-born social worker who had been an integral part of the New Deal's implementation, became the linchpin in FDR's, and America's, relationships with Churchill and Stalin.  Lacking an official title or a clear executive branch portfolio, Hopkins could take the political risks his boss could not, and proved crucial to maintaining personal relations among the Big Three. Big Week six days that changed the course of World War II by Bill Yenne The Allies knew if they wanted to invade Hitler’s Fortress Europe, they would have to wrest control of the skies from the Luftwaffe.  Big Week launched the largest bombing campaign of the war thus far, dropping roughly ten thousand tons of bombs in a rain of destruction that would take the skies back from the Nazis. A higher call an incredible true story of combat and chivalry in the war-torn skies of World War II by Adam Makos, Larry Alexander  This is the true story of the two pilots whose lives collided in the skies that day: the American Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown, a former farm boy from West Virginia who came to captain a B-17--and the German--Second Lieutenant Franz Stigler, a former airline pilot from Bavaria who sought to avoid fighting in World War II. What happened between them, the American 8th Air Force would later classify as 'top secret.' It was an act that Franz could never mention or else face a firing squad. The fall of the house of Dixie the Civil War and the social revolution that transformed the South by Bruce C. Levine In this major new history of the Civil War, Bruce Levine tells the riveting story of how that conflict upended the economic, political, and social life of the old South, utterly destroying the Confederacy and the society it represented and defended.  Kill anything that moves the real American war in Vietnam by Nick Turse Americans have long been taught that events such as the notorious My Lai massacre were isolated incidents in the Vietnam War, carried out by "a few bad apples." Nick Turse demonstrates in this groundbreaking investigation, violence against Vietnamese noncombatants was not at all exceptional during the conflict. Rather, it was pervasive and systematic, the predictable consequence of orders to "kill anything that moves."