(I would later read Keegan’s history of the First World War and review it.) But after Keegan, I wanted to delve into the war more, to take a narrower view and learn about some of the hundreds of smaller conflicts that, taken together, comprised the war. Wanting to get an overview, I opted for John Keegan’s The Second World War, which turned out to be an ideal choice in that it was the broad, readable overview of the war that I had been looking for. I also realized that I ought to know more about the war that both of my grandfathers fought in, one in Europe and one in the Pacific. It was an important event in the war, but one that I had never really learned much about, and McEwan’s rich storytelling made me want to learn more. The second part of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement tells of the British evacuation from France at Dunkirk after the Germans overran the country. I had a child’s school-taught understanding of the war until I read a novel, actually. Two generations removed from the war, I have trouble fathoming both the global scale of the conflict and the impact it had on hundreds of millions of individuals.
I feel like most people have a vague, middle-ground understanding of the war. The more I learn about World War II, the more it fascinates me.
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