World War II compilation of New York Times articles

Daily reportage of World War II was covered first hand on the battlefields and the home front by journalists from The New York Times.

A collection of articles have been selected by a University of Exeter historian for a new book.

Professor Richard Overy has edited ‘The New York Times Complete World War II 1939 – 1945’, which seeks to provide a new perspective on World War II with more than 500 of the most pivotal and interesting articles from the archives of The New York Times.

The articles are some of the most riveting and gripping reportage of the war - first-hand accounts, major events and little-known anecdotes. The book is designed and illustrated with hundreds of maps and historical photographs. It covers the biggest battles of the war, from the Battle of the Bulge to the Battle of Iwo Jima, as well as moving stories from the US home front and profiles of noted leaders and heroes such as Winston Churchill and George Patton. The accompanying DVD-ROM has over 90,000 articles – every article The NY Times published about the war-giving readers’ access to more day-by-day coverage from the invasion of Poland to V-J Day.

Professor Overy said: “The New York Times was America's premier newspaper during World War II and the range, intelligence and literary quality of the articles is particularly impressive. The hundreds of articles I've chosen here give a fresh perspective on the war and remind the reader that the journalists had to try to work out what was happening in a very uncertain world, not knowing, as we now do, the eventual outcome.”

Key headline articles include ‘German army attacks Poland hostilities begun’, ‘Nazis Invade Holland’, ‘Luxembourg by Land and Air’, ‘Roosevelt Warns War Imperils Whole World’,‘Japan Wars on U.S.’ and ‘Britain Makes Sudden Attack on Hawaii’. It also has smaller and possibly more unusual titles such as ‘Blondes May Aid in War: Undyed, Uwaved Hair Needed for Airplane Instruments’.

Professor Overy is the author or editor of 30 books on World War II, air power and the European dictatorships, including most recently The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945. He won the Wolfson prize for History in 2004 and the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from the Society for Military History in 2001. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Date: 2 December 2013