In this seventh year of the Top Ten awards, visitors to Stone & Stone's Second World War Books website have over the last two months nominated and voted for almost four hundred of the best nonfiction WWII-related titles published in 2002. That set a record for the most books nominated as well as a record for the greatest number of votes cast during our Top Ten voting.
As usual, some broad patterns emerged. More than in most previous contests, this seemed to be a year for mainstream titles, and there was less emphasis than usual on the German armed forces at the uppermost levels of the standings. Instead, books about the American army and American leaders (such Eisenhower and Patton) grabbed more attention this time around. Other than Craig Nelson's work, books about airpower, seapower, and the war in the Pacific did not fare extremely well.
More specifically, a book by David Glantz won again, but it's a rare year when the prolific colonel fails to place at least one book in the Top Ten! Likewise, University Press of Kansas extended its impressive winning streak with two Top Ten finishers: The Battle for Leningrad and Victory at Mortain. One other book, Alamein, came from an academic publisher (Harvard University Press) and one book (Hell's Gate) came from a small specialty press. Other than that, more than in previous years, this year's Top Ten books were published by large, mainstream houses.
As to the campaign itself, the voting in 2002 saw some very close races. Books constantly traded spots near the top of the list, and contending titles constantly moved in and out of the Top Ten. In the end, quite a few books fell only a few votes short. Among those finishing just out of the money: Winston Churchill by Keegan, the two volume Operation Market-Garden set by Margry, Hitler's Volkssturm by Yelton (another University Press of Kansas publication), and The Conquerors by Michael Beschloss. Several others were close behind. Overall, it was a well-conducted campaign with many worthy contenders.
Balloting was halted at the stroke of the New Year (California time) and tabulation of votes is now complete. Here are the Top Ten Books of 2002 as selected by visitors to these webpages, in alphabetical order by author:
Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943. New York: St Martin's Press, 2002
Beevor, Antony. The Fall of Berlin, 1945. New York: Viking, 2002
D'Este, Carlo. Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002
Glantz, David M. The Battle for Leningrad, 1941-1944. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2002
Hirshon, Stanley P. General Patton: A Soldier's Life. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 2002
Latimer, Jon. Alamein. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002
Nash, Douglas E. Hell's Gate: The Battle of the Cherkassy Pocket, January to February 1944. Southbury, CT: RZM, 2002
Nelson, Craig. The First Heroes: The Extraordinary Story of America's First World War II Victory. New York: Viking Penguin, 2002
Reardon, Mark J. Victory at Mortain: Stopping Hitler's Panzer Counteroffensive. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2002
Rhodes, Richard. Masters of Death: The SS-Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2002
Our warm congratulations and thanks go out to the authors, editors, publishers, and booksellers who brought us these Top Ten titles of 2002, as well as all the other great new books that arrived last year to enrich and enliven the body of Second World War literature.
Thanks also to all the visitors to Stone & Stone's Second World War Books website who helped select these winners and made 2002 such a great year for us.
Now let's start searching for the best new books of 2003!
Previous winners
Top Ten Books of 1996
Top Ten Books of 1997
Top Ten Books of 1998
Top Ten Books of 1999
Top Ten Books of 2000
Top Ten Books of 2001
A note on methodology
This was the seventh year of our Top Ten and the sixth year with our online "voting machine." As anyone who has been on the Net for any length of time knows, this kind of Web-based voting can be subject to the worst kind of electronic ballot-stuffing spam, so we took great pains to write "Jimmy Carter" algorithms for the voting machine program to ensure a clean election. Because previous years proved such measures were necessary, we expanded and refined the system again this year.
Although it might not have been immediately evident, in addition to counting votes, the voting machine was also carefully monitoring the election. Visitors could vote as often as they wanted, but no more than ten total votes per visitor were actually tallied; excess votes from a visitor were quietly ignored. (And, as always, it was clear that many spam-voters failed to realize their excess votes were not being counted.) The system was able to detect and disallow many kinds of fraudulent voting patterns automatically; meanwhile, everything else was forwarded to the "voting commission" for review, and if necessary, manual adjustment.
Unfortunately, these precautions proved necessary again this year. Some folks apparently take the Top Ten very, very seriously, because it's always amazing to see how many people seem determined to unfairly influence the outcome of the voting for their own purposes. But we're equally determined not to permit that kind of abuse to ruin the fun for everyone else. Sooner or later, perhaps, these single-minded scam artists will realize their abusive tactics simply don't pay off. Despite the unsavory efforts of a few thoughtless folks, all the ballot-stuffing spam votes were disallowed and we're confident we conducted a certifiably clean, fair election.
