This short book gives the quintessential dates and mandates behind the battles the reader usually thinks about  dealing with World War II. Four chapters follow the Setting the Scene: The Last War? : Ch. 1 – The Beginning, Ch. 2 – The European Theater, Ch. 3 –  The Home Front,  Ch. 4 – War in the Pacific, followed by Map of the Events – What Happened Where? , The Story Continues: New World Powers, and Influential Individuals, Timeline*, Living History, Resources, Glossary, Index.

The concise timeline* helped but events in order from Europe to Japan to Pearl Harbor to Europe and back to Japan. This book filled in some missing pieces for me. Example: In 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to “Europe first… defeating Germany first. They would then move on to Italy and Japan.”  And how many days between  dropping the first atomic bomb, the second atomic bomb, and the Japanese surrender.