Richard Overy

A Dirty Conflict

World War Two Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West

By

BBC Books 442pp £20 order from our bookshop

This book is designed to accompany the BBC series of the same title, broadcast this autumn, but like so many of the books that producer Laurence Rees has authored, it stands on its own as a thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction to many of the shadier deals of the Second World War, from the Nazi–Soviet Pact of August 1939 to the institutionalised distrust that marked the onset of the Cold War.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • He has 'raised his country’s international influence to unprecedented heights, while at the same time jailing hundr… ,
    • 'It is one of those nice linguistic ironies that English should have attempted to make sex respectable by clothing… ,
    • 'He was to my mind the father of the idea that journalism – yes, even journalism – can have a moral dimension to it… ,
    • RT : Feeling old, as exhumes a piece I wrote 37 years ago. But a joy to see Kathy O’S there too. Here’s why:… ,
    • 'Enough of his character remains just out of reach for Barnes to relish the challenge of imagining him.' Patrick M… ,
    • RT : I did a thing about the new Penguin Book Of Oulipo for this month’s Literary Review: @Lit_Review,
    • 'Moore’s work has been so influential that the former ministers who provided him with much of his information now r… ,
    Follow Us