Provides background and information on major topics about the World War II period, biographies of significant men and women involved in the war, and primary sources such as full or excerpted speeches, diary entries, newspaper accounts and other original documents.

Vol. 1-2. Almanac: Background to war -- The beginning of the war in Europe -- The war expands -- Japan attacks and America goes to war -- The home front -- Europe under occupation -- The Holocaust -- The impact of total war -- The Allies and the Axis -- Turning points: the Allies begin to win the war -- The great invasion: Operation Overlord -- The defeat of Germany -- The war against Japan -- The defeat of Japan -- Spies and scientists -- Art, entertainment, and propaganda -- The world after the war. Vol. 3. Biographies: Frank Capra -- Neville Chamberlain -- Chiang Kai-Shek -- Winston Churchill -- Jacqueline Cochran -- Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. -- Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. -- Charles de Gaulle -- Dwight D. Eisenhower -- Hermann Goring -- Hirohito -- Adolf Hitler -- Oveta Culp Hobby -- Franz Jaggerstatter -- Fred T. Korematsu -- Douglas MacArthur -- George C. Marshall -- Bernard Montgomery -- Benito Mussolini -- The Navajo Code Talkers -- J. Robert Oppenheimer -- George S. Patton -- Ernie Pyle -- Jeannette Rankin -- Erwin Rommel -- Franklin D. Roosevelt -- Joseph Stalin -- Edith Stein -- Dorothy Thompson -- Hideki Tojo -- Harry S. Truman. Vol. 4. Primary sources: Intensification -- Winston Churchill -- Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt -- Adolf Hitler -- Herbert A. Werner -- Franklin D. Roosevelt -- Home front -- Catherine "Renee" Young Pike -- Jerry Stanley -- The human cost -- Ruth Minsky Sender -- Harry S. Truman -- Rodney Barker -- Ernie Pyle -- World War II nurses -- Breakthrough -- Veterans of D-Day -- Stephen E. Ambrose -- E. B. Sledge -- Harry S. Truman.