Blood and Ruins: The Great Imperial War, 1931-1945'Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single volume works of the conflict in the shade' Saul David, The TimesA bold new approach to the Second World War from one of Britain's foremost military historiansRichard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its origins and aftermath. He argues that this was the 'great imperial war', a violent end