The Battle of Britain. Pearl Harbor. Stalingrad. D-Day. These defining events of the Second World War exemplify both the immense heroism and the grievous costs of global conflict. They are the tense, thrilling moments that had the potential to swing the war in favour of either side and in turn change the course of history. In this gripping new look at the twentieth century's most crucial conflict, historian P.M.H. Bell analyzes twelve unique turning points that determined the character and the ultimate outcome of the Second World War. Be they military campaigns, economic actions, or diplomatic summits, Bell's twelve turning points span the full breadth of the war, from the home front to the front line. Many are familiar - Barbarossa and Hiroshima among them - while sections on war production, the Atlantic convoy system, and the conferences at Tehran and Yalta emphasize the importance of the combatants' actions off the battlefield. Through these keenly narrated episodes, Bell reveals how the Allied and Axis powers achieved their greatest successes and stumbled into their strategic failures, inviting us to think about the Second World War in a fresh, stimulating way. Ultimately, his close study of these dozen turning points reminds us, often terrifyingly, how easily things might have turned out differently.

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List of The Twelve Turning Points:

1. The Defeat of France, May – June 1940
2. The Battle of Britain, July – September 1940
3. Operation Barbarossa, 1941
4. Pearl Harbour, December 1941
5. The Battle of Midway, 4 June 1940
6. The Battle of Stalingrad, July 1942 – February 1943
7. Battle of the Atlantic, March – May 1943
8. The Battle of the Factories
9. Teheran conference, 28 November – 1 December 1943
10. D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, June – July 1944
11. Yalta conference, 4 – 11 February 1945
12. The Defeat of Japan and the Atomic Bombs, 1945

P. M. H. Bell was Reader in History at the University of Liverpool and is the author of many books including The Origins of the Second World War in Europe.

"Through a sharp focus on a number of key episodes, Philip Bell's lucid and fascinating analysis is able to highlight the uncertainties of the Second World War, and show that its outcome was at many points less predictable than we often presume."—Ian Kershaw

"Philip Bell provides a sharp depth of writing that conveys the detail required in an engaging and informative manner about a multi faceted conflict that still grips our attention even after all these years."—Leslie J M Obre, History Teaching Review