World War II is by the far the period of history about which I have read the most, so I was familiar with most of the events and key players. What sets Hastings' book apart is its look at how ordinary people experienced these horrible events. We all know at least a little about what the war was like for Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, and FDR, but Hastings, having combed through thousands of letters, diaries, and memoirs takes his readers into the trenches on the Eastern front, to the daily life in London during the blitz, and into the despair of German housewives as the Russian army closed in in 1945. It is impossible to read a book like this and keep your distance from the people who fought, lost, and won this terrible conflict.
The book is also good for myth-busting and settling controversies. Hastings is never afraid to call out his fellow Brits when he sees the need, nor does he blindly lavish praise on the means used by the Allies to win the day. He is the first historian I've read (though it is an historical reality) to unabashedly give the majority of the credit for defeating the Nazis to the Soviet Union. He admits that they were the only nation willing to pay the enormous cost in blood that was required to bring down the Third Reich, and questions (quite honestly) whether the more civilized US and UK could have stomached such a cost. Finally, his take on the circumstances and moral debate of the use of the atomic bomb is well-informed and persuasive: Hastings takes us from our armchairs to the context of Truman's dreadful, but for Hastings inevitable, decision to use the bomb.
If you are new to World War II studies, this isn't the book with which to start. The anecdotal focus of the book at times causes the big picture to be lost, and so I would recommend reading a more general history of the war first. If you're fairly familiar with the events and want a fresh look, this is the book for you.
Next up, James Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.
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