The Winds of War is Herman Wouk's second book about World War II. Published in 1971, The Winds of War was followed up seven years later by War and Remembrance; originally conceived as one volume, Wouk decided to break it into two volumes when he realized it took nearly 1,000 pages just to get to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Herman Wouk was an American author and centenarian who wrote historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny (1951) for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.