Scorched Earth: A Global History of World War II

by Paul Thomas Chamberlin Narrated by Jefferson Mays

Overview

A powerful, unsparing new history of World War II, recasting the conflict as a brutal struggle for survival among declining and ascendant imperial powers

In popular memory, the Second World War was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, marking the demise of the age of empires and the triumph of an American-led democratic order.

In Scorched Earth, historian Paul Thomas Chamberlin dispatches the myth of World War II as a good war. Instead, he depicts the conflict as it truly was: a massive battle beset by vicious racial atrocities, fought between rival empires across huge stretches of Asia and Europe. The war was sparked by German and Japanese invasions that threatened the old powers' dominance, not by Allied opposition to fascism. The Allies achieved victory not through pluck and democratic idealism but through savage firebombing raids on civilian targets and the slaughter of millions of Soviet soldiers. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as hyper-militarized new imperial powers, each laying claim to former Axis holdings across the globe before turning on one another and triggering a new forever war.

Dramatically rendered and persuasively argued, Scorched Earth shows that World War II marked the culmination of centuries of colonial violence and ushered in a new era of imperial struggle.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Conveyed in accessible, succinct prose that makes the book easy to read, even if the content is sometimes hard to stomach. Mr. Chamberlin’s vivid descriptions and quotations resonate.”—The Wall Street Journal

"An exceptionally well-written account of the war and its roots in colonialism… Scorched Earth offers not only a panoramic account of the most destructive war in history but illuminates the path that led us to the Cold War and beyond."—Air Mail

“A fresh, closely argued interpretation of a global conflict that continues to reverberate.”—Kirkus (starred review)

“Magnificent.”—Counterpunch

“Written in an engaging and fluent style… [a] compelling and informative reading. This is a detailed survey of the origins and key events of a global conflict that shaped our modern world, and is rich with detail and insights.”—History of War

"An utterly engrossing and amazingly tortured history of the conflict... one of the most readable and stirring single volume overviews of the Second World War from an undeniable enthusiast of the subject."—Open Letters Review

“If doubts remain that World War II was the most devastating conflict in human history, Scorched Earth dispels them. Even more, Paul Thomas Chamberlin challenges the basic notion of a struggle between good and evil. There is little good here except that this war of annihilation finally ended after taking its tremendous toll. And while historians have long identified World War II as a seminal influence on our contemporary era, none have effectively argued that colonialism in its varied versions was its ultimate legacy—until now. In previous work, Chamberlin contested Cold War realism; likewise, here he upends common assumptions about the Good War. He demythologizes in a way that eloquently covers this epic conflict in all its details—experts and war buffs will find a lot of battle descriptions that are fresh here—while provoking us to rethink our understanding of history itself. Truly a tour de force!”—Thomas W. Zeiler, author of Annihilation: a Global Military History of World War II

“A well written, balanced, and provocative account of the twentieth century’s greatest and most destructive war. Paul Thomas Chamberlin covers all the major theaters of the war, smoothly integrating political and military developments. The author’s unorthodox interpretation of the Second World War will challenge historians to reexamine long-standing assumptions and beliefs about the origins and nature of this critical conflict.”—Ronald H. Spector, author of Eagle Against the Sun

“What more is there left to say about World War II? A lot, it turns out, as Paul Chamberlin shows in his brilliant, panoramic new history of the most colossal, catastrophic war in human history. New insights leap from every page, introducing even seasoned readers to fresh perspectives on the war. By reimagining the war as a global struggle for supremacy between different types of empires, and by focusing our attention away from Europe and more towards the rest of the world, Chamberlin provides a breathtakingly new interpretation of World War II. A truly remarkable book.”—Andrew Preston, author of Total Defense

“In a sweeping and vivid narrative, Scorched Earth challenges us to abandon the simplistic hero myths that have blinded us to World War II's devastating and continuing impact on our own time."—Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

“The most up-to-date and enlightening global history of World War II. Paul Thomas Chamberlin’s briskly written Scorched Earth is an unflinching account of the role played by racism and colonial aspirations in the conflict’s origins, brutal unfolding, and less than heroic outcomes.”—Brooke L. Blower, author of Americans in a World at War

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2025-03-04
A view of World War II as the child of colonialism and the father of superpower neo-imperialism.

“The last time that a world leader launched a war to dominate Eastern Europe and a rising Asian power sought to challenge American power in the Pacific, it led to the bloodiest war in human history.” So, with an eye on the present, ventures Columbia University historian Chamberlin in closing his sweeping survey of World War II. Fittingly, that narrative begins with World War I and its antecedent conflicts in Africa, where the European colonial powers and the U.S. tested techniques and strategies that would come to full fruition a generation or two later: concentration camps, poisonous gas, aerial bombardment of civilian populations. In this regard, Chamberlin dismantles the “good war” narrative so cherished by celebrants of the “greatest generation”: World War II had “overarching moral clarity,” but it had plenty of ignoble aspects. One, Chamberlin notes at the outset, was contingency planning on the part of the U.S. and Britain to immediately rearm German soldiers and go to war with the Soviet Union; another was the prewar expansion of American power deep into the Pacific, the result of a racist view that assumed that it was the white man’s role to lead the world (Japan, an allied power, was explicitly denied racial equality in the Treaty of Versailles). In the end, Chamberlin argues, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the European fight, losing millions of soldiers, while the U.S. bore the brunt of the Pacific War but relied on technological superiority to bomb Japan into submission. The outcome: a postwar world order dominated by those militarized superpowers and their satellites, “forced to prepare for perpetual warfare and the prospect of nuclear annihilation.”

A fresh, closely argued interpretation of a global conflict that continues to reverberate.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191092775
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	05/06/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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