World War II: The Essential Reference Guide is a subject guide edited by Priscilla Roberts, associate professor of history at the University of Hong Kong. The content of this publication, however, has been written by a variety of authors. Each entry or section contains the name of the author(s) and the List of Contributors, located at the end of the book, provides title and affiliation for each one.
The content of this 411 page volume is divided into eight major sections: Overview of World War II, Causes of World War II, Consequences of World War II, A to Z Entries, Primary Source Documents, Appendix: Historical Dilemmas in World War II, Chronology, and Bibliography. There is also an index.
The first three sections, all authored by the same two people, are part of the preliminary material of the publication. Each of these sections, consisting of five pages each, is further subdivided into smaller parts. Some graphics are included, however none has any attribution beyond that of the organization name from whence it came, which holds true for all graphics found in the entire publication. Having more information, such as the particular collection where the original of the graphic is located, would be useful in case a reader may be interested in conducting additional research.
The bulk of the volume is devoted to the A to Z entries, written by a variety of authors. Like the preliminary section, none of the entries include any attribution, which is needed to determine the authority of the content. This is the downside of using this publication as an authoritative source. While each of the A to Z entries includes a references section, there are no citations to the particular entry content in order to determine if it was derived from any of the references. These references are to books only and the absence of journal articles, web sites, and other research resources, given that this is a recent publication, is a disappointment. Each entry also provides access to hyperlinked see also referrals located elsewhere in the A to Z list.
The Primary Source Documents section, which follows the A to Z list, is a puzzlement. These documents are not PDFs, but instead are written as text, although each document does include a citation to its source. No information is provided, however, as to the criteria for inclusion, and it is a “hodge podge” of document types. For example, there are official documents such as the Three Power (Tripartite) Pact Between Germany, Italy, and Japan, Signed at Berlin, September 27, 1940; speeches such as Winston Churchill's We Shall Never Surrender; and other documents such as German Massacre of Jews: Oral History of Martin Koller and Will [Date Unknown but Late 1944 or Early 1945] of Kamikaze Pilot Ryōji Vehara.
The Appendix: Historical Dilemmas section also contains no information as to why there are only three topics included: Wartime Alliances, Battle of the Seas, and Dropping the Bomb. Each of these main topics includes subtopics written by different authors. Although each has a print resource references list, there are no citations to content information.
The Chronology is a timeline dating from January 30, 1933 (Hitler appointed German Chancellor) to October 24, 1945 (UN Charter begins). The Bibliography is substantial, with the majority of entries being book titles, followed by a handful of web sites and a brief listing of TV and film titles. Again, no journal articles are referenced.
The e‐book version includes citations for every entry available in MLA, Chicago, APA, and Harvard citations styles, as well as the ability to export to RefWorks and EasyBib. Just as using any product with a built‐in citation generator, the reader should double‐check to ensure that the citations are indeed correct. Each citation generated includes the specific author(s) of the entry, but not the name of the section/entry and the rest of the citation is generic to the main book information. This may prove to be confusing to those who are less familiar with the use of citations.
The e‐book version also has print and e‐mailing capabilities for each entry as well as a link to a dictionary (American Heritage College Dictionary Fourth Edition) and link (persistent link to the particular entry). For those who already have the ABC‐Clio eBook Collection, this e‐book includes the MyBookShelf and MyBookMarks and Notes features. All of these features are available on every screen along with the ability to search within the title.
While this publication provides coverage depth on World War II, the lack of attribution to the content and the graphics is troublesome, especially in these times of heightened awareness of the integrity of sources. However, as a way of giving users background information from which they can then dig deeper for more authoritative sources, this book will prove to be useful to the study of World War II.
