Histories you can trust.
World War Two was the most devastating conflict in recorded human history. It was both global in extent and total in character. It has understandably left a long and dark shadow across the decades. Yet it is three generations since hostilities formally ended in 1945 and the conflict is now a lived memory for only a few. And this growing distance in time has allowed historians to think differently about how to describe it, how to explain its course, and what subjects to focus on when considering the wartime experience.
For instance, as World War Two recedes ever further into the past, even a question as apparently basic as when it began and ended becomes less certain. Was it 1939, when the war in Europe began? Or the summer of 1941, with the beginning of Hitler's war against the Soviet Union? Or did it become truly global only when the Japanese brought the USA into the war at the end of 1941? And what of the long conflict in East Asia, beginning with the Japanese aggression in China in the early 1930s and only ending with the triumph of the Chinese Communists in 1949?
In The Oxford History of World War Two a team of leading historians re-assesses the conflict for a new generation, exploring the course of the war not just in terms of the Allied response but also from the viewpoint of the Axis aggressor states. Under Richard Overy's expert editorial guidance, the contributions take us from the genesis of war, through the action in the major theatres of conflict by land, sea, and air, to assessments of fighting power and military and technical innovation, the economics of total war, the culture and propaganda of war, and the experience of war (and genocide) for both combatants and civilians, concluding with an account of the transition from World War to Cold War in the late 1940s. Together, they provide a stimulating and thought-provoking new interpretation of one of the most terrible and fascinating episodes in world history.
Author(s): Richard Overy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 479
City: Oxford
Cover
The Oxford History of World War II
Copyrights
Editor’s Preface
Contents
List of Maps
World War II
Praise for The Oxford History of World War II
Introduction: Total War—Global War: Richard Overy
1: The Genesis of World War: Patricia Clavin
Legacies of the First World War
The Search for Security
The Fighting Spreads
2: The Japanese Empire at War, 1931–1945: Steven Hugh Lee
Japan’s Empire and the Roots of the Second World War in Asia, 1877–1931
Japan’s Invasion of Manchuria: Starting the Fifteen-Year War
The War of Resistance
Military Authoritarianism in Japan
Japan, the United States, and the Start of the Pacific War, 1940–1941
War and Occupation: South-East Asia
The Politics of Food in Wartime China and Vietnam
Conscription, Forced Labour, and Slavery in the Japanese Empire
The Oceanic War, 1942–1945
Final Offensives: China and South-East Asia, 1944–1945
The End of the War with Japan
3: The Italian Wars: Nicola Labanca
Italy at War, and National Stereotypes
Images or Complex Reality
The Years of ‘Peace’: From One World War to Another
Radicalization
Preparation for War?
The Fascist War: A Gamble
Attack and Occupation
Albania, Greece, and the Balkans
The Collapse of the Empire
A Central Front
From Parallel War to Subaltern War: Russia
Disengagements
Downfall
Forty-Five Difficult Days
The War of Liberation: From the South
Resistance
In the North
Anomalous Prisoners: The Italian Military Internees
A Divided Country and Nazi Massacres
Insurgency and Liberation
Post-War Memories: The War Continues
From Memoir to History
4: The German Wars: Richard Overy
Hitler and German Foreign Policy
Germany Alone
The ‘Barbarossa’ Gamble
The Path to Defeat
5: The West and the War at Sea: Eric Grove
The Attack on Shipping
Defeating Axis Naval Power in Europe
The Two-Ocean War
Defeating the U-Boat
Sea Power and Allied Victory
6: The Allies from Defeat to Victory: Evan Mawdsley
Introduction
Failed Alliance: 1939–1940
The British–Soviet Alliance
The Grand Alliance
1943: The Axis in Retreat
1944: Decisive Allied Offensives
1945: The Defeat of Nazi Germany
Conclusion
7: Fighting Power: War-Making and Military Innovation: David French
Introduction
Equipment
Logistics
Morale
Innovation in Wartime
Intelligence
Innovation on the Eastern Front: The Red Army
Innovation on the Western Front: The US Army
Carrier Warfare and Amphibious Operations
The War in the Far East: Slim and the 14th Army
The War at Sea: The North Atlantic
Strategic Bombing
Conclusion
8: Economies in Total War: Richard Overy
The Pattern of Economic Mobilization
Economic Collaboration
The Production of Weapons and Equipment
The Home Front Economy
The International Economy
9: Front Line I: Armed Forces at War: Michael Snape
Recruitment
Social Structures
Foreign Legions
Women in the Military
Preparedness and Training
Culture
Religion
Propaganda
Criminality
Conclusion
10: Front Line II: Civilians at War: Richard Overy
Civil Defenders
War Comes to the Home Front
Civilian Wars
Conclusion
11: Unnatural Deaths: Richard Bessel
The Toll of Military Campaigns
Mass Murder
Workers, Prisoners, and Civilians
Hunger, Disease, and Suicide
Conclusion
12: Brains at War: Invention and Experts: David Edgerton
Experts in Government
Experts
Trials, Investigations, and Surveys
Invention
Aero-Engines and Fuels
Sharing
Themes
Drugs and Insecticides
Assessment
13: The Culture of War: Ideas, Arts, and Propaganda: David Welch
Introduction
Britain Can Take It
National Socialist Germany: A People’s Community
The Soviet Union and the Great Patriotic War
The USA: ‘Artists for Victory’
Conclusion
14: From World War to Cold War: Geoffrey Roberts
Peacemaking
The German Question
The Iron Curtain
The Arc of Crisis
The Marshall Plan
The Cominform
NATO
The Korean War
Historians and the Cold War
The Cold War in Perspective
Maps
Further Reading
1. The Genesis of World War
2. The Japanese Empire at War, 1931–1945
3. The Italian Wars
4. The German Wars
5. The West and the War at Sea
6. The Allies from Defeat to Victory
7. Fighting Power: War-Making and Military Innovation
8. Economies in Total War
9. Front Line I: Armed Forces at War
10. Front Line II: Civilians at War
11. Unnatural Deaths
12. Brains at War: Invention and Experts
13. The Culture of War: Ideas, Arts, and Propaganda
14. From World War to Cold War
Index
