by David M. Glantz and Jonathan House. Glantz is the founder and former director of the U.S. Army's Foreign Military Studies Office, and the author of several books about the Great Patriotic War. House wrote Towards Combine Arms Warfare, and is an associate professor of history at Gordon College. When Titans Clashed, published in 1995, is based on archived material made available after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It covers the war on both operational and strategic levels. The book starts in 1918, giving an overview of the development of Soviet armed forces during the Civil War. It discusses the inter war period, Soviet-German military cooperation as pariah states, the evolution of the Red Army into the most advanced in the world under Marshal M. N. Tukhachevsky, it's subsequent destruction during the purges, and the belated attempts to rebuild it before Barbarossa, as well as a brief examination of Khalkin-Gol, and the Winter War. The last chapter before he starts to cover the war discusses the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two armies. The war itself is divided into three periods: Barbarossa Stalingrad, the Soviet offensives from Stalingrad to the Dnepr, and the winter offensive of '44 to Berlin. It details the reasons for the Soviet success as well as the German intelligence failures during the beginning of the war. It also documents how the Soviets improved while the German army deteriorated during the course of the war. When Titans Clashed is an excellent book, using mostly primary sources, offering copious notes, and including an essay at the end of the book on the Soviet archives. The subject of the book is well covered and the authors don't display the failing of many others by staying within the scope of their topic. They do offer political and production information as needed. It also contains a multitude of quality maps and charts, as well as pictures of generals, tanks, and propaganda posters. When Titans Clashed is the best book covering the entire Russian Front that I have found to date. It is very readable, and I think anyone interested in the subject will find it well worth reading. It is available in trade paperback for $17.95. Back to Dispatch September 2003 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com