Never before in the history of mankind has the of a war bean so immense and pervasive. The second World War was a world war indeed, with battle fields in the streets of once humdrum towns and the homes of ordinary people. Even those who mercifully escaped war's destruction felt its impact at every moment, with the immediate news coming to them through radio and newspapers, and further illuminating details through magazines and books. This was a people's war, brought to them by people like themselves who were on the spot to observe the true face of war, and it is in their words that the real history has been written. In this book, Henry Steele Commager, noted historian and co-outhor of the Pocket History of the United States, brings you the story of the war in the words of these first-hand observers, woven together by his own interpretations and analyses into a new and vital kind of history.