Leningrad: A History From Beginning to End (Hourly History) – Book Review

Hourly History is an e-book publisher focusing on short, concise stories from history which you can read in roughly an hour. Leningrad: A History From Beginning to End makes to exception.

For a 50 page manuscript, this book does a great job of not only summarizing the Siege of Leningrad, but offering a backstory and context as well. You can read about the history of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) since its inception in 1703, going through its life during the Monarchic rule, revolution(s) and the dreadful German blockade of the city in World War 2 – one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and possibly the one with the most casualties.

I liked this. It is very well structured and manages to condense quite a bit of information in very few pages. While this is the only book from Hourly History which I have read, it made me want to check out some of their other works, particularly as they have plenty about World War II. If I end up reading other publications by them, I’ll review those as well.

This E-book is a historically accurate summary (although in 50 pages details were kept to a minumum) of the city of St Petersburg, the German Siege in World War 2, and how it impacted the survivors. If you are new to the topic, or do not have the time to get into more comprehensive reads, this is a great introduction to the remarkable story of Leningrad and well worth a glance.