The Problem Solvers who Turned the Tide in the Second World War

Engineers of Victory

From Paul Kennedy, author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, one of the most acclaimed history books of recent decades, Engineers of Victory is a new account of how the tide was turned against the Nazis by the Allies in the Second World War. 
 
In January 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt met in Casablanca to review the Allies' war aims. To achieve unconditional surrender they had to overcome some formidable hurdles, from winning air command to 'hopping' across the Pacific islands. Eighteen months later, they had done what seemed impossible. 
 
Here Paul Kennedy reveals the role of the problem-solvers and middle-men who made it happen - like Major-General Perry Hobart, who invented the 'funny tanks' which flattened the D-Day beaches; or Captain 'Johnny' Walker, who worked out how to sink U-boats with a 'creeping barrage'. This book shows the conflict in an entirely new light. 
 
'Consistently original ... An important contribution to our understanding' Michael Beschloss, The New York Times Book Review 
 
'[Kennedy's] refreshing study ... asks the right questions, disposes of clichés and gives a rich account of neglected topics' David Edgerton, Financial Times 
 
'Colourfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few people who made all the difference' Washington Post 
 
PAUL KENNEDY is one of the world's best-selling and most influential historians. He is the author or editor of nineteen books, including The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which has been translated into over twenty languages, Preparing for the Twenty-First Century, The Parliament of Man and the now classic Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery.

Consistently original ... An important contribution to our understanding

His refreshing study ... asks the right questions, disposes of clichés and gives a rich account of neglected topics

Colourfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few people who made all the difference

In January 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt met in Casablanca to review the Allies' war aims. To achieve unconditional surrender they had to overcome some formidable hurdles, from winning air command to 'hopping' across the Pacific islands. Eighteen months later, they had done what seemed impossible. 
 
Here Paul Kennedy reveals the role of the problem-solvers and middle-men who made it happen - like Major-General Perry Hobart, who invented the 'funny tanks' which flattened the D-Day beaches; or Captain 'Johnny' Walker, who worked out how to sink U-boats with a 'creeping barrage'. This book shows the conflict in an entirely new light.

The Past, Present and Future of the United Nations

The Parliament of Man

From the world's bestselling historian Paul Kennedy - The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers sold two million hardbacks in the US alone, and over 150,000 copies in UK editions

The extraordinary story of the UN - its creation, the threats it has faced, and the possibilities it holds for the future. 
 
Can the world be governed by agreement rather than conflict? In 1945 the world's most powerful nation states came together to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and reaffirm faith in the fundamental human rights'. Over sixty years later, the United Nations still doggedly pursues that mandate. 
 
 Paul Kennedy's The Parliament of Man is a timely history that examines the roots and functions of this unique organization, casts an objective eye on its past effectiveness and assesses whether it will meet the challenges of our present world - from supplying aid during humanitarian crises to combating climate change. 
 
 Ultimately he shows why, despite its fallibility and its foibles, the UN remains utterly indispensable to our future. 
 
 'Wonderful ... a highly readable and sophisticated account' Independent 
 
 'Extraordinary ... a retelling of the United Nations story to remind us why it remains a necessary organisation' The New York Times 
 
 'A sweeping historical tour ... this is a necessary book' Financial Times

Paul Kennedy is a Professor of History at Yale University. His books include The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and Preparing for the Twenty-First Century. He was born and brought up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

In the course of the twentieth century, there occurred a development unique in the story of humankind. States, which had defined themselves from Thucydides to Bismarck by their claims to sovereign independence, gradually came together to create international organizations to promote peace, curb aggression, regulate diplomatic affairs, devise an international code of law, encourage social development and foster prosperity. The emergence of this network of global governance was not straightforward and the debate about its role is just as heated today as it was generations ago. In this long-awaited new book, Paul Kennedy, probably the best-selling historian now living, examines this key development in the history of our century. Beginning with the earliest forms of international organization, he goes on to trace the creation and changing role of the UN in the postwar era, and finally suggests how, in the face of new threats to security and the continued vigour of at least some nation states, the institution will need to change over the course of the twenty-first century, arguing that we all share the responsibility to make the only world organization we possess work as well as possible.

Paul Kennedy

The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery is the best single-volume study of Britain and her naval past now available to us.

As soon as it appeared in 1976, Paul M. Kennedy's magisterial survey of the historical role and significance of British seapower was recognized by serious naval historians as a work of first importance ... This is by far the most important survey of British Naval history since Sir Herbert Richmond's Statesmen and Sea Power (1946), and in some ways it is more important ... the whole book displays an immense historiographical grasp of a calibre that broad surveys seldom attain. The author's unfailing powers of discernment are further revealed by a sparkling and apt quotation on practically every page.

Paul Kennedy's now classic book traces Britain's rise and fall as a sea power from the Tudors to the present day. Challenging the traditional view that the British are natural 'sons of the waves', he suggests instead that the country's fortunes as a significant maritime force have always been bound up with its economic growth. In doing so, he contributes significantly to the centuries-long debate between 'continental' and 'maritime' schools of strategy over Britain's policy in times of war. Setting British naval history within a framework of national, international, economic, political and strategic considerations, he offers a fresh approach to one of the central questions in British history.

Paul Kennedy

Praise for The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery

The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery is the best single-volume study of Britain and her naval past now available to us.

As soon as it appeared in 1976, Paul M. Kennedy's magisterial survey of the historical role and significance of British seapower was recognized by serious naval historians as a work of first importance ... This is b ...

Books by Paul Kennedy

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