Book Review: World War II: Saving the Reality by Kenneth Rendell

Topic & Content

Published in 2010, this book is a short history of World War II illustrated with photographs of the author’s collection of artifacts. It also contains numerous inserts with replicas of letters, photos, and miniature propaganda posters from the times. The book is organized as follows:

• Ch. 1: Germany in World War I
• Ch. 2: The Rise of Nazism
• Ch. 3: The Rise of the German Military
• Ch. 4: Munich
• Ch. 5: The Fall of France
• Ch. 6: Winston S. Churchill
• Ch. 7: The Battle of Britain
• Ch. 8: Occupied Europe
• Ch. 9: Resistance
• Ch. 10: The Holocaust
• Ch. 11: The United States Enters the War
• Ch. 12: The U.S. Military
• Ch. 13: North Africa
• Ch. 14: Prisoners of War
• Ch. 15: The Invasion of Russia
• Ch. 16: Italy
• Ch. 17: The Invasion of Europe
• Ch. 18: The War in the Pacific
• Ch. 19: The End of the Reich
• Ch. 20: The Atomic Bomb

Unlike other book reviews, I’ve included photos of some of the pages and inserts to illustrate the nature of this book. The inserts come folded up and slipped into the brown paper pockets. Bear in mind that all of the inserts are of printed materials and not three-dimensional objects.

Thesis

There isn’t a bona fide thesis to this book, but the focus seems to be on presenting the era of World War II through historical artifacts; both those generated by political figures and experienced by common citizens. There is also some implication of the benefit of preserving physical history for future generations.

Author’s Background

Kenneth Rendell began collecting WWII artifacts in 1959 when the general public still wasn’t particularly interested in preserving or documenting the history of that (then recent) conflict. As a result, he was able to amass an impressive collection and establish the Museum of World War II in 1999 (renamed the International Museum of World War II in 2016) which reportedly was the most extensive collection of WWII artifacts. Despite plans to expand the museum, it closed in 2019, and Rendell’s collection was sold to billionaire Ronald Lauder who reportedly moved the artifacts to Washington D.C., but there have been no further developments on what will happen to them (as of July 2023).

In addition to his collections, Rendell is also an authority on the identification of forgeries.

Critical Observations

Positives

This book seems largely oriented toward collectors rather than historians. Most of the two-page spreads contain small inserts, either taped to the page or in paper pockets. The inserted materials are reproductions of (miniaturized) propaganda posters, newspapers, letters, postcards, and photographs. All of these are facsimiles, but they provide the reader with a sense of realia. The author also gives some information on the ease or difficulty of collecting various items for interested readers. (Although this information was probably accurate when the book was published in 2010, I imagine prices for various artifacts have only increased since then.)

The book comes in a heavy cardboard slipcase owing to the nature of its contents. It’s richly illustrated with color photos. Since it contains inserts, it’s printed on very thick paper. The entire book is only about 144 pages long and reads extremely fast.

Negatives

This book is less of a history and more of a small sampling of the author’s collection from the International World War II Museum. As such, the narrative text on the overall course of WWII is fairly generic and not very detailed. Furthermore, the coverage of various theaters and events is fairly lopsided, but this is likely a reflection of the author’s collection not having many artifacts of those theaters and regions; not to mention the greater difficulty in recovering artifacts from the Asia-Pacific Theater when compared to Europe, as well as the public’s greater fascination with the latter over the former.

The reproduced letters, particularly the handwritten ones, are very difficult to read, given the scrawl. A printed transcription would’ve been greatly appreciated. Additionally, there are very few translations of anything that’s written in German, Italian, or Japanese. (We can be thankful that we have Google Translate, nowadays.)

Finally, rather than making a strong argument for the need to preserve history and its physical artifacts, the author instead chooses to constantly advertise the museum he’s created and his collection. While his efforts are laudable, the reality is that his museum is now defunct and his collection has been sold off. The tooting of his own horn can be a bit grating at times. In short, the book could be much better if the thesis were more well-developed and if the author made a solid academic argument for the preservation of realia. The world of collecting is different from that of history, which is largely focused on the written narrative and interpretation of documents. Perhaps if the author provided more insight into WWII collecting, then the book wouldn’t feel so much like a self-promotional pitch.

Evaluation (Does the content support the thesis?)

All in all, this book is an interesting concept. It’s well-illustrated and provides readers with a more tactile sense of history. While not a detailed single-volume history of WWII, it fulfills its goal of providing reproduced documentation to illustrate what people would’ve seen at the time. Unfortunately, the book lacks focus and seems to be more of a simple exhibition of the author’s collection. If a book of this format could be leveraged to provide less of a popular history and more of an archaeological or in-depth technical study on a more focused topic, then I think it could cater well to a specific market. I would love something like this with a specific focus on a certain vehicle, weapon system, person, etc.

Overall, it’s a very unique book and worth looking at for those interested in physical history, or those looking at getting into the collecting hobby.