The Winds of War

Why it’s on the list: A US naval officer and his family move through 1939–1941 — Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Pearl Harbor — in the first half of Wouk’s two-volume Second World War sequence. Wouk places a family at every decision point, so the novel doubles as a narrative of how the war’s diplomacy actually unfolded.

Where I heard about it

• @moseskagan’s thread — a reply to his question “What historical fiction should I read next? (Bonus points for something involving building or trade, rather than violence)” in the thread, April 2025. The full list of replies lives on What historical fiction should I… (tweet).

Connections

• What historical fiction should I… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• World War II — the subject.