[This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book reviewcontest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous untilafter voting is done. I’ll be posting about one of these a week forseveral months. When you’ve read them all, I’ll ask you to vote fora favorite, so remember which ones you liked]To a first approximation, there are a million books about WorldWar II. Why should you care about How the War Was Won(hereinafter “HtWWW”) by Phillips Payson O’Brien?It provides a new, transformative view of the conflict byfocusing on production of key goods and what affected thatproduction instead of the ups and downs of battles at thefront.That particular lens used can (and should) be applied outside ofjust World War II, and you can get a feel for how that might bedone by reading HtWWW.I have lectured about World War II and read many, many booksabout it. I have never texted friends more excerpts of a book thanthis one.I have some criticisms of HtWWW, but if the criticisms dissuadeyou from reading the book, I will have failed. These complaints arelike tut-tutting Einstein’s penmanship.