Words of War is a book about the story of the second world war told through 100 letters, speeches, and diaries from the time. These 100 original documents were chosen by Antony Richards, author and head of documents and sound at the Imperial War Museum. The book was created with the aim of showing how people of varied nationalists and careers lived throughout the war. 

The book has cleverly been written by Anthony Richards in chronological order of the events that occurred during World War II, in order to help present the wider picture to the reader and demonstrate how the events all fit together. Equally clever, each document can also be read on its own to provide an insight into how that specific person felt at that time. 

The amount of primary source material in the book is invaluable. Reading Words of War provides the reader with a chance to access original source material that is usually stored within the archive at the Imperial War Museum. Producing this book brought the letters, speeches, and diaries into the public sphere and, as a result, made them far more accessible. 

The emotions of those who were there at the time can really be felt within the book. The material provides an honest and heartfelt account of what was happening at the time due to the fact that a large number of the sources are private letters that the creator never intended to be published. I have loved being able to read the book as a result of this, and I am amazed by the opportunity to be able to access these documents whenever I wish to via the book. 

As a history student myself, having a book full of primary sources is incredibly useful as most essays and certainly dissertations need primary sources to support your argument. Primary sources can sometimes be hugely difficult to access. The Words of War book will be an absolute treasure to any students who write about World War II in the future. 

Within the 100 documents, some commonplace names such as Winston Churchill can be found but there are also a large quantity of lesser known names. Each document in the book is viewed as equally important regardless of who wrote it; there are also documents from men and women, as both played a crucial role within the war. Additionally, there are sources from both British people and other various nationalities, which is something that I personally found to be one of the best features of the book. 

One of the pieces that I felt was the most emotional and as a result I remember is the letter wrote by special operations executive Violette Szabo. The letter, in which Violette Szabo states what should happen to her daughter if she is to die while serving in France, is incredibly short but powerful. Unfortunately, Szabo is caught and killed two days after arriving in France. I think possessing this knowledge has allowed me to feel the powerfulness of the letter and appreciate her bravery. 

The author’s introduction to the book is incredibly well written and helps to provide an insight into why Richards wrote the book and his thought process behind choosing the documents.  The short introduction helps to outline the rest of the book and provides some important information, stating that the documents are only edited in length when necessary and that spelling mistakes have been left in places when contextually important. I firmly believe in this approach as it is best to let the voices of the past speak for themselves through the documents. 

The short contextual page that can be found with every document was a great idea. The information helps to place the documents within their setting. This helps the reader to understand more and therefore appreciate much more. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and read the whole thing in four days as I was incredibly drawn in and did not want to put the book down. I strongly believe that the book has the potential to become one of the leading books on the second world war due to the unique and powerful way the book has been written. I would definitely recommend that anybody who studies world war two or simply wishes to know more reads this incredible book. 

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