Rating: 
Summary: Can't put it down
Review: This is an enlightening account of the battle with a good overview of what led up to it. It is extremely well-written and enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent presentation of the classic WWII battle
Review: IMHM, this is one of the best books on the Stalingrad battle written! The author presents a methodical, chronological sequence of events regarding the battle from both the German and Soviet perspectives. Good commentary on the political issues affecting the battle, as well as its Cold War consequences. Highly recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Deeply involving, a great history
Review: As riveting as the best war novels, a true rival to "The Triumph and the Glory" or "The Thin Red Line" or "The Killer Angels." Anthony Beevors' "Stalingrad" deserves all of the praise it is garnering from historians and general public alike.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, enjoyable reading.
Review: I thought the book did a good job of getting at some of the basics of a truly fascinating piece of history. I would not make it the only piece of material to rely on, if one wanted a true understanding of what transpired. More time should have been spent detailing the actual combat within the city itself. It was after all, the defense in the streets of Stalingrad, that produced the disaster. I also thought too much of the content dealt with command level, instead of front line troops. How did one of the worst trained Armies in history stop The German Wehrmacht from crossing the Volga? I guess you had to be there.
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Summary: Excellent One Volume History
Review: This subject has inspired a good deal of writing, including several one volume works. Beevor's is probably the best. Based on an extensive review of the prior literature, original archival research, and interviews, Beevor has produced a very readable overview of the battle of Stalingrad. Beevor is a very good writer who integrates telling anecdotes seamlessly into narrative giving the gist of situations. He sets the stage well with astute chapters on the Eastern Front conflict up to Stalingrad and does an excellent job of describing both the command level decisions and the essential horrors of combat in Stalingrad. Many aspects covered well in this volume, such as the roles of the NKVD and Soviet deserters, are not dealt with well in other volumes. This is not a blow by blow account of the campaign and may disappoint some readers who expect highly traditional detailed military history. Beevor's judgements are dispassionate, humane, and backed by careful consideration of the evidence. My only criticism is that the book would have benefited from more maps with better detail.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Given the rave reviews that this book has gotten, I was hoping for more than it gave. It isn't a bad book, but neither is it exceptional. In particular, I came away without any real feel for the street fighting in Stalingrad. Since this was what made Stalingrad unique, I thought it would be a natural emphasis of the book. Instead Beevor's work focuses almost exclusively on the command level, although he spruces it up with the occassional quote from diaries or letters.Because of the lack of "ground-level" battle description, the book never really explains how the Soviet forces in the city, badly outnumbered and with a tenuous supply line, managed to hold off the Wehrmacht long enough to enable the encirclement. This is the main question that the battle makes me wonder about, and I'm still wondering. Another fault, to me, was that Beevor spent too long setting the scene. Almost a third of the book covers the period before the Germans reached Stalingrad. While I recognize the desire to write a stand-alone book, I think that was misplaced emphasis.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting account of a crucial battle
Review: Reading the popular new novel of WWII, "The Triumph and the Glory" has rekindled my interest in the Second World War, and now Beevers towering accomplishment with "Stalingrad" has solidified it. A very gripping account of this bitter battle.
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Summary: Stalingrad...what MIGHT have been if the Nazis won?
Review: I recalled watched a PBS show called, Battlefield: Stalingrad a couple years ago. I'm not that quite knowledgeable on war history but the show about Stalingrad was just utterly fascinating to watch. The oft-phased sentence, "It was the turning point of the war," was mentioned from time to time, but in Antony Beevor's book, I started to noticed that it was THE turning point of the war, not "A" turning point. Once again, I recalled from the PBS show that the narrator was talking about the huge oil fields in the southern USSR and the rest of the Middle East south of Stalingrad and lo and behold! Had the Nazis have beaten the Red Army "thoroughly" with new carefully planned strategies from the Wehrmacht commanders, in spite of Hitler, and took Stalingrad completely, the world we know today would be a very different place! I would shudder at the thought of Nazi Germany controlling half of the world's oil markets to this day if the Germans succesfully beat the Red Army in Stalingrad. The Soviet Union would have been no longer exist 40 years ago, but Communist China would control half of Siberia, and all of Europe would be under Nazi Germany. Even worse we may or may not find out about the Holocaust sooner or later. That would send chills to the bones.... In Beevor's book, "Stalingrad" is an excellent read in spite of details and accounts. Think about that THE "Turning point" of the war in Stalingrad.
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Summary: SEE ATTACHED NEWS ITEM
Review: THE historian Anthony Beevor won the first £30,000 Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction last night for his book The Battle of Stalingrad. It has already become a best-seller and been named by many other writers as their favourite book of the past year. Although there are many accounts of the siege of Stalingrad, where around 500,000 Russians died, Mr Beevor was able to gain access to previously unseen Soviet records. The new prize, whose judges included Cherie Blair, is the country's richest non-fiction prize. Mr Beevor, a 20th-century specialist, is married to the writer Artemis Cooper, granddaughter of Duff Cooper, a former British ambassador to Paris. Mr Beevor was presented with his prize by Mrs Blair and James Naughtie, chairman of the judges, at a dinner at the Banqueting House in Whitehall. The new prize was created by a group of publishers and media figures including Charles Moore, editor of The Daily Telegraph, and is sponsored by an anonymous British benefactor.
Rating:
Summary: Good thumbnail sketch.
Review: Well written concise account of the battle and the campaign. A good introduction to the material with Beevor's own analysis and new (apparently) primary sources added into the mix. The account of the activities of a german pathologist who conducted a number of post-mortem examinations during the seige is an example of material not readily, or otherwise, available to english-speaking readers. As a student of disease and epidemiology I found Beevor's treatment of the 'lice' and other health problems too understated--if anything. We in the west too often forget that insects can be deadly, due to the diseases they carry, as well as a nuisance. His treatment of the "christmas issue" was also an interesting aspect of the battle I had never considered. A very good effort overall.
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