The Road to Stalingrad: Stalin's War With Germany

by John Erickson

Release Date: July, 1999

Edition: Paperback

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Excellent detailed account of the "Great Patriotic War"

This is an excellant book for those seeking detailed accounts of the war between the USSR and Germany. Mr. Erickson does a masterful job of detailing the Soviet failures at the beginning of the war through their successful defense of Moscow to the fall of the Crimea setting the stage for Germany's catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad. This account is largely from the Soviet perspective, but I do not believe that detracts from its value. The author displays little bias, he rather lets the facts speak for themselves. This has one weakness: as others have said, it has no maps. The lack of maps make it somewhat difficult to follow unless one has some idea of the geography of the USSR; even then, it is still difficult to follow at times. However, overall this is an excellent work for anyone seeking more detail about the Great Patriotic War.

REVIEW

Not in print for perhaps 10 years, this study has, since it's initial release in the seventies, been the quintisential work on the subject of the Russo-German war as viewed from the Russian side. Erickson is still the formost scholar in the world on the red army and it's war with Germany.

However, this is not a book for those not already familiar with the subject. It was written for scholars of Barbarossa, and so Erickson assumes the reader to posses considerable knowledge of the subject. It contains no maps or battle plans, and references are made in passing to events and topics which it is assumed the reader has knowledge. If you have the background, this is THE study on the topic.