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Lovenought -> RE: Information on conflicts to help me relate? (11/8/2018 4:07:48 AM)
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1. I can't immediately think of any good books on the Eastern Front. I'm sure someone else will though.
2. In my opinion, the best narrative historical book (Or at least, the most enjoyable) that covers the time-period and theatre of WITW (Western Allied land campaigns from late 1942 through to the end of the war) is The Liberation Trilogy, by Rick Atkinson. It has a very good audiobook version, too.
3. I have some important advice to you, since you are just starting out in the study of this field and apparently have no/little prior knowledge (By your own admission). This is actually very important:
As you said, the US and Russian rivalry is very real. And sadly it has poisoned scholarship a bit. Along with many other things. When you are starting out, you should be cautious, and keep in mind that some opinions might be motivated by biases or agendas. Especially if you are just talking to other people over the internet.
A disappointing amount of people simply see what they want to see, to reinforce biases they already had. For example, someone who is resentful of USA in the present day for whatever reason (or someone who is a Russian Chauvinist) might go around saying "The Soviet Union did 99% of the work and the Western Allies did nothing". Which is obviously garbage since it ignores the many ways in which the Western Allies very significantly degraded German combat power on the Eastern Front. Or you might have an American saying "America won the war single-handedly and everyone else just helped a little", which is also obviously wrong. Or how the French believe that everyone and their dog was in the Resistance, which was of course worth more than an Army Group. This even permeates into the world of history books sometimes, sadly.
Of course, stuff like this is a risk in the study of any period of history. But it's just much more pronounced in WW2, due to the immense public interest in it, and it's immense significance to many countries.
But don't worry, there are many good, unbiased, and very enjoyable sources out there too. It's an incredibly fascinating field, i'm sure you'll love learning!
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