World Empire Lost, the military treatise by 'Armin von Roon,' is of course an invention from start to finish. No work of this scope can be free of error, but readers will discern, it is hoped, an arduous effort to give a true and full picture of a great world battle. But the history of the war in this romance is offered as accurate the statistics, as reliable the words and acts of the great personages, as either historical, or derived from accounts of their words and deeds in similar situations.

The Winds of War is fiction, and all the characters and adventures involving the Henry family are imaginary.

May the Father of all men prosper our arms in the new fight, as He prospered-in the end-the cause of men of good will in World War II, the great and terrible global battle that these two novels portray. Now it is the destiny of America-for all its faults and weaknesses, the greatest free society in history-to lead the world against a new grim outbreak of evil, a savage stab at the core of freedom on earth, a dark, shocking start to a new millennium. In the very long run, that will so far has prevailed. The evil in human hearts knows no boundary, except the deeper, stronger human will to freedom, order, and justice. That eternal benchmark of barbarism, let us remember, was set not by a Third World country, not by Orientals, not by the Muslims, but by the Germans, an advanced European nation. In the last global war, before VE day and VJ day came, there befell the collapse of France, the Bataan death march, the fall of Singapore, the siege of Stalingrad, bloody Tarawa, and bloodier Guadalcanal and at the hidden heart of that global war, concealed by the smoke of battle, there burned the Holocaust.

Both books tell one overarching story-how the American people rose to the challenges of World War II, the first global war, after fearsome setbacks forgotten today in the shining memory of final victory.Īs I write these words late in October 2001, a new war is just beginning, global again in scope but totally different in character. Little, Brown and Company, the publisher of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, has requested a special author's introduction to this new edition of the novels in a changed format. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at Thank you for your support of the author's rights. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property.

The winds of war herman wouk review