The Second World War: A Short History

by R. A. C. Parker

Overview

The Second World War is a compact but comprehensive and absorbing history of the war. It examines the causes of the war, how it was won and lost, and its far-reaching consequences for humanity. In tracing the key events of both the European and the Far Eastern wars, R. A. C. Parker outlines clearly the strategies of the participants, the economies and societies that underlay them, and the strengths and weaknesses of their fighting forces. He describes the decisive battles and analyses the reasons for their outcome, paying close attention to special features of the war: mobile warfare, forced migration, the Holocaust, strategic and nuclear bombing. Unlike many other histories of the war this book places British and European involvement squarely in an international perspective, and the author never shies away from raising fundamental questions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191647147
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	09/27/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

R.A.C. Parker is a Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

	List of plates	ix
	List of maps	xi
1.	Hitler, Germany, and the origins of the European war	1
2.	German conquest of Poland, Norway, the Low Countries, and France	21
3.	Britain alone	44
4.	Operation Barbarossa: the German attack on the Soviet Union	60
5.	The United States enters the war: the origins of the Japanese attack	72
6.	Japanese victories and disappointments: December 1941 to August 1942	86
7.	The end of German expansion: the Atlantic, North Africa, and Russia, 1942-1943	95
8.	Anglo-American strategies for victory	115
9.	Economies at war	131
10.	Strategic bombing	151
11.	Morale	173
12.	Driving back the Germans: North Africa, Italy, and Russia	177
13.	D-Day and victory in Europe	195
14.	The defeat of Japan and the atom bomb	224
15.	From war to peace: Anglo-American relations	243
16.	From alliance to Cold War: the Soviet Union and the West	250
17.	The impact of war: the murder of the European Jews	264
18.	The impact of war: casualties, crisis, and change	281
	Note on quotations	305
	Book list	306
	Index	315

Editorial Reviews

Review from previous edition: "Based on a matchless knowledge of the documents, he provides an authoritative treatment of military, diplomatic, and economic aspects, written with great force and insight. As a one-volume survey, it is unlikely to be surpassed...[A] magnificent achievement, a tour de force."—Kenneth O. Morgan, New Statesman and Society

"[A] miracle of compression compared with the rest of the horde of general histories."—Guardian

"Parker alights unerringly on the salient campaigns and issues, and considers them with consistent style and insight."—Times Educational Supplement

"The most balanced view of the causes and courses of the Second World War."—Field Marshal Lord Carver, Times Literary Supplement

"[W]ritten in clear and elegant English...[A] masterful account of the Second World War in all its different spheres. It is scrupulously fair, illuminated by an engaging sense of humour...and gives an entirely balanced view of the varying contributions of the different powers engaged."—Richard Cobb, The Spectator

"The Second World War...[is] at once succinct and thorough, sharp and nuanced....[It] puts the conflict in the widest context surveying its political, diplomatic, demographic, and economic ramifications....In addition to its other virtues, this trenchant, elegant survey contains the most lucid summation...of the Nazis' murder of the European Jews."—The Atlantic Monthly

From the Publisher