Behind the Scenes of World War 2

By: Kevin F.

The Conquerors is a nonfiction book by Michael Beschloss about the Allied leaders of World War 2. More specifically, it is about the important stories and decisions these leaders had to make to ensure Germany would never try to rise back to power. The book touches on things happening during the war, but mostly the end of the war. Beschloss writes about FDR's choice of the Morgenthau plan which was to reduce Germany to a country without industry, but later chooses to follow Churchill's plan of a divided but revived Germany. He also talks about Truman's struggle in the White House after FDR died. His knowledge was limited about the situation because FDR was in a sense keeping him away from it. However Truman does pull through, but with difficulty. There were even problems between the Allied leaders. Truman and Churchill worried what would happen once the war was over, how Stalin would act on Europe if he would attempt to conquer it or keep the peace.

I was personally interested in this book because I learned a lot about World War 2 last year. I learned about Hitler's rise to power, the battles, and the end of the war, but we never went into detail about the leaders and behind the scenes. This book was not only interesting, but informative, and really got my attention. I could connect everything I learned to what was happening in the book and that made it really interesting. One thing I really liked was there were small side stories about the leaders, but it all tied into one good book.

If you are interested in history, especially World War 2, this would obviously be a great book for you. Not only does it cover the action that was going on, but how the leaders made everything that was going on, happen. I learned a lot of new things about the Allied leaders and if you are interested, I recommend you do too.