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Simon Ball

Alamein

US$80US$40

Introduced By the author

Simon Ball’s Alamein joins the Folio Society’s fully illustrated Great Battles series: a masterful analysis of Montgomery’s famous Second World War victory against Rommel’s North African forces, and its controversial legacy.

Alamein

US$80US$40
Book Details
 
Presentation Box & BindingQuarter-bound in blocked cloth, with textured paper sides printed with artwork by Geoff Grandfield
Plain slipcase
Dimensions9 inches x 5¾ inches
FontSet in Garamond
Pages248 pages
AuthorSimon Ball
Illustration16 pages of mono & colour plates, plus 2 integrated maps.
Publication Date17/05/2022
Editor's Notes
 
As a battle, El Alamein was a straightforward and resounding victory for the Allies against Rommel’s Afrika Korps and the Axis forces. Yet no military engagement of the Second World War has a more contested legacy – one that has prompted more than 300 books. Simon Ball’s superb study stands head and shoulders above the field, chronicling and evaluating a victory that ranks alongside Stalingrad and D-Day in the British psyche. This Folio Society edition includes two hand-drawn maps by Kevin Freeborn and 16 pages of vivid images, taking in battlefield photography, film posters and eyewitness paintings by war artists. Series illustrator Geoff Grandfield contributes the dramatic cover, in which Rommel and Montgomery face off in silhouette across the spine. Alamein is the definitive judgment on what Churchill called ‘the end of the beginning’ of the struggle against Hitler.

About the book

Historic Battles Reappraised

Alamein is the fourth book in the Folio Society’s Great Battles series, following acclaimed studies of Waterloo, Thermopylae and Culloden. Under the editorial eye of military historian Hew Strachan, the series provides incisive, provocative accounts of the world’s most famous battles, written by acknowledged experts. Simon Ball deftly unpicks the battle and its cultural afterlife, drawing on an immense breadth of different sources. There is graphic testimony from soldiers and prisoners of war on both sides – many among them talented writers – alongside the pronouncements of generals, statesmen, official propagandists and armchair theorists, plus analysis of the vast number of novels and films inspired by the battle. Readable and engaging, Alamein shows how different factions have shaped the popular narrative of the Desert War – often using it to push their own agendas, shore up reputations and pursue private battles.

1 of 3

About the book

Historic Battles Reappraised

Alamein is the fourth book in the Folio Society’s Great Battles series, following acclaimed studies of Waterloo, Thermopylae and Culloden. Under the editorial eye of military historian Hew Strachan, the series provides incisive, provocative accounts of the world’s most famous battles, written by acknowledged experts. Simon Ball deftly unpicks the battle and its cultural afterlife, drawing on an immense breadth of different sources. There is graphic testimony from soldiers and prisoners of war on both sides – many among them talented writers – alongside the pronouncements of generals, statesmen, official propagandists and armchair theorists, plus analysis of the vast number of novels and films inspired by the battle. Readable and engaging, Alamein shows how different factions have shaped the popular narrative of the Desert War – often using it to push their own agendas, shore up reputations and pursue private battles.

2 of 3

About the book

Historic Battles Reappraised

Alamein is the fourth book in the Folio Society’s Great Battles series, following acclaimed studies of Waterloo, Thermopylae and Culloden. Under the editorial eye of military historian Hew Strachan, the series provides incisive, provocative accounts of the world’s most famous battles, written by acknowledged experts. Simon Ball deftly unpicks the battle and its cultural afterlife, drawing on an immense breadth of different sources. There is graphic testimony from soldiers and prisoners of war on both sides – many among them talented writers – alongside the pronouncements of generals, statesmen, official propagandists and armchair theorists, plus analysis of the vast number of novels and films inspired by the battle. Readable and engaging, Alamein shows how different factions have shaped the popular narrative of the Desert War – often using it to push their own agendas, shore up reputations and pursue private battles.

3 of 3

About the Author

Simon Ball is Professor of International History and Politics at the University of Leeds, where he has taught since 2012, specialising in the history of the Cold War, the Second World War, secret intelligence and political assassination. He was formerly Professor of Contemporary History and Head of Humanities at the University of Glasgow and was the editor of the journal, War in History, from 2014 to 2021. His most recent book is Secret History: Writing the Rise of Britain’s Intelligence Services (2020); his other publications include The Bitter Sea: The Struggle for Mastery in the Mediterranean, 1935–1949 (2009), The Cold War: An International History 1947–1991 (1998) and The Bomber in British Strategy: Doctrine, Strategy and Britain’s World Role, 1945–1960 (1995).