Alternating between the major events, Beevor details Operation Torch, American victories in the Pacific, and the Soviet counterattacks on the Eastern Front, the invasion of Sicily and Italy.

[18] As the war enters its final days, Beevor recounts the frantic race to Berlin between the Western Allies and the Soviets along with the downfall of the Nazi regime.

[20] Multiple important figures in the war are covered in detail, not only including the important national leaders (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Hideki Tojo, Chiang Kai-shek), but also individual generals (von Manstein, Rommel, Yamamoto, Zhukov, Montgomery, Eisenhower, MacArthur, and others) and lesser-known political figures.

The Guardian praised his account of the Eastern Front, but criticised his depiction of the Second Sino-Japanese War and its rapid pace.

[23] Other reviews lauded the global scale of the book and its gripping narrative, and the attention it gives to lesser-known areas of the war.

[23] Beevor also disagrees with some long-held views about certain generals in the war; in particular, he writes that the reputations of Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel are far overblown.