Engineers of Victory

Apr 17, 2025 9:48 PM

Author:Paul Kennedy

From Paul Kennedy, author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, one of the most acclaimed history books of recent decades, Engineers of Victory is a new account of how the tide was turned against the Nazis by the Allies in the Second World War.

In January 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt met in Casablanca to review the Allies' war aims. To achieve unconditional surrender they had to overcome some formidable hurdles, from winning air command to 'hopping' across the Pacific islands. Eighteen months later, they had done what seemed impossible.

Here Paul Kennedy reveals the role of the problem-solvers and middle-men who made it happen - like Major-General Perry Hobart, who invented the 'funny tanks' which flattened the D-Day beaches; or Captain 'Johnny' Walker, who worked out how to sink U-boats with a 'creeping barrage'. This book shows the conflict in an entirely new light.

'Consistently original ... An important contribution to our understanding' Michael Beschloss, The New York Times Book Review

'[Kennedy's] refreshing study ... asks the right questions, disposes of clichés and gives a rich account of neglected topics' David Edgerton, Financial Times

'Colourfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few people who made all the difference' Washington Post

PAUL KENNEDY is one of the world's best-selling and most influential historians. He is the author oreditor of nineteen books, including The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which has been translated into over twenty languages, Preparing for the Twenty-First Century, The Parliament of Man and the now classic Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery.

Reviews

Consistently original ... An important contribution to our understanding

—— Michael Beschloss , The New York Times Book Review

His refreshing study ... asks the right questions, disposes of clichés and gives a rich account of neglected topics

—— David Edgerton , Financial Times

Colourfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few people who made all the difference

—— Washington Post

A fine exciting book told with intense drama. A thriller of real life

—— Observer

Brilliant. Told with great literary and dramatic talent

—— New York Times

Elegant [and] superbly written. As you read think of Alan Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Castner gives us that steady rhythm of one foot in front of the other. Think of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Here is the reality of the exhausted mind, and of profound thought wandering all Creation.

—— Larry Heinemann, author of 'Paco’s Story' and 'Close Quarters'

Damn, this is a very human book. You need to read The Long Walk.

—— Thomas E. Ricks, author of 'Fiasco' and 'The Gamble'

Engrossing... the enduring treachery of memory remains the real, unfinished story of “The Long Walk.” It takes as much courage for Castner to confront that memory as it does to face an active fuse.

—— Elizabeth D. Samet , New York Times

Vivid... Castner's book intersperses stateside scenes of intense military training, off-hours hijinks and marital strife with vivid, often grisly accounts from Iraq's war-ravaged landscape, where his EOD teams disarmed improvised explosive devices, hunted for the bomb makers or cleaned up after their horrific handiwork while dodging gunfire and angry locals. [He writes] bluntly in describing how he has been changed by the war.

—— Wall Street Journal

Not the typical testosterone-driven account that plagues the war-memoir genre. His straightforward, unself-conscious writing paints an absorbing picture of war in the twenty-first century.

—— The New Yorker

At times, The Long Walk...is almost unbearable to read. Not because the writing is bad — it’s often excellent. It’s unbearable because of Castner’s brutally vivid descriptions of the war and the way it tore apart his mind and his life.... An important book to read for anyone who wants to get some sense of the long-term human toll of the Iraq war. How many soldiers have been damaged as Castner has? How many lives and families have been destroyed — or will be — by the effects of TBI? The Long Walk brings home in a visceral way the hidden, personal burden of war that many veterans continue to carry.

—— The Boston Globe

A brutally honest, sharply observed account of life at war. Both harrowing and poignant - an intensely personal story.

—— The Daily Beast

The Long Walk is a powerful, intimate, disturbing look at the ways that war can infect the life of a soldier. By the end of the story...we’ve watched him fight a deftly drawn series of battles, from the physical, to the emotional, to the existential. Each one of these is more intense and wrenching than the last. The Long Walk is not for the faint of heart. Castner tells us what he is thinking and feeling at all times and has the magnificent ability to fill his scenes with the suspense of the moment. It is the ultimate show-not-tell.

—— Jennifer Miller , Christian Science Monitor

Raw and entirely convincing. There are some extraordinarily tense set-pieces but, just as powerfully, the tales from Iraq are interspersed with what happened to Castner when he got home.

—— Reader's Digest

Intelligent, well-informed.

—— Evan Mawdsley , BBC History Magazine

Has a lot more to offer than the usual facts and figures thrown together about a largely forgotten part of history… This has a certain amount of written fluidity… I have read any number of books about this subject and I have to say that this is one of the best researched that I have found… I found it a satisfying read throughout, I learnt a lot and filled in a few holes in my knowledge, an excellent book.

—— Reg Seward , Nudge

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