A People's History of the Second World War unearths the fascinating history of the war as fought "from below." Until now, the vast majority of historical accounts have focused on the regular armies of the allied powers. Donny Gluckstein shows that an important part of the fighting involved people's militias struggling against not just fascism, but also colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism itself. Gluckstein argues that despite this radical element, which was fighting on the ground, the allied governments were more interested in creating a new order to suit their interests. He shows how various anti-fascist resistance movements in Poland, Greece, Italy, and elsewhere were betrayed by the Allies despite playing a decisive part in defeating the Nazis. This book will fundamentally challenge our understanding of the Second World War – both about the people who fought it and the reasons for which it was fought.

Presents interviews, photographs, letters, oral histories, stories, eyewitness accounts, and excerpts from historical writings from different perspectives on a wide variety of topics related to the Second World War.

The Second World War saw an unprecedented expansion of suffering beyond the frontlines. Of the 1,355,000 tons of bombs dropped on Germany, for instance, most fell on non-military targets, and of the 55 million people killed worldwide, two-thirds were civilians. In The Second World War: A People's History, Joanna Bourke uncovers the grim stories of death and destruction lost behind those statistics. Using diary entries, oral histories, poetry and letters home, Bourke allows the people that lived and died in the global bloodletting to tell their own stories. Soldiers who fought for all sides and in all of the major theatres tell of the fear and horror of combat. Partisan fighters recount the daring risks they took and the torments of captivity. Civilians describe the anxiety of approaching war, their struggle for survival, and their despair and helplessness as the war consumed their world. Bourke chillingly demonstrates that all of this sorrow and woe was the direct result of political and military decisions on both sides. A brief, objective synopsis of each campaign in the war clarifies the link between strategic, military decisions and the massacre and inhumane treatment of non-combatants--events now known only by names like Nanking, Sobibor, Dresden, and Nagasaki--that was all too common in this brutal war. This short, engaging history is a poignant testimony to the memory of the innocents lost and a stark reminder that their demise was not inevitable--indeed it was often strategically planned and methodically executed.

Since its original landmark publication in 1980, A People's History of the United States has been chronicling American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version of history taught in schools -- with its emphasis on great men in high places -- to focus on the street, the home, and the, workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles -- the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality -- were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States, which was nominated for the American Book Award in 1981, features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. Revised, updated, and featuring a new after, word by the author, this special twentieth anniversary edition continues Zinn's important contribution to a complete and balanced understanding of American history.

A powerful, detailed and warming story of the Second World War.

Two and a half million Indians volunteered in the Second World War. Their stories had been lost and silenced, until now. Award-winning historian Yasmin Khan marshals interviews, newspaper reports and unseen archival material to tell the forgotten story of India’s role in the Second World War. We meet soldiers, sailors and non-combatants – prostitutes, nurses, cooks, peasants – whose lives were upended by a war far, far away. From a small Muslim boy arrested for singing anti-recruitment songs, to cooks preparing chapattis on army boats, to a family listening to illicit German radio broadcasts, and a love letter from the first Indian soldier to receive the Victoria Cross, Khan makes us feel and hear the lost voices of a people involved in a war that wasn’t of their choosing. Dramatizing a cataclysm that transformed the subcontinent and led to its independence, The Raj at War undeniably inserts South Asia back into World War II history and confirms that the Empire – and all its subjects – formed both the heart and limbs of Britain’s war efforts and eventual victory.

An authoritative illustrated history of World War II complemented by artifacts and stories of those who lived through it from across the globe. Total War is an illustrated examination of the most significant historical episode of the twentieth century: World War II. This immersive account of a conflict that permanently reshaped the geopolitical landscape is told not only through compelling photographs, maps, and infographics produced specifically for the book, but also through a series of artifacts that convey the real-life stories of some of the millions worldwide—from the United States to Europe, Asia, and Africa—who were affected by the war. Published to coincide with the much-anticipated opening of the new Second World War and Holocaust galleries at the Imperial War Museums (IWM), London, in 2021, Total War is an essential volume for anyone interested in the everyday realities of one of the most brutal and far-reaching wars in modern history. Numerous images from the IWM’s unique Second World War and Holocaust collection are included, many of which have rarely been published. From a doll belonging to a Jewish child refugee to a kamikaze pilot’s final letter, and from Molotov cocktails to a US airman’s bomber jacket, the book delves into the significance behind the deeply moving objects reproduced on its pages. With precision, sensitivity, and a truly global approach, Total War offers a strikingly original visual perspective on an emotive and often controversial subject whose implications are still being felt today.

“Does for the Civil War period what Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States did for the study of American history in general.” —Library Journal Historian David Williams has written the first account of the American Civil War as viewed though the eyes of ordinary people—foot soldiers, slaves, women, prisoners of war, draft resisters, Native Americans, and others. Richly illustrated with little-known anecdotes and firsthand testimony, this path-breaking narrative moves beyond presidents and generals to tell a new and powerful story about America’s most destructive conflict. A People’s History of the Civil War is a “readable social history” that “sheds fascinating light” on this crucial period. In so doing, it recovers the long-overlooked perspectives and forgotten voices of one of the defining chapters of American history (Publishers Weekly). “Meticulously researched and persuasively argued.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A "breathtakingly magisterial" account of World War II by America's preeminent military historian (Wall Street Journal) World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Never before had a war been fought on so many diverse landscapes and in so many different ways, from rocket attacks in London to jungle fighting in Burma to armor strikes in Libya. The Second World Wars examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. Drawing on 3,000 years of military history, bestselling author Victor Davis Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war's origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory. An authoritative new history of astonishing breadth, The Second World Wars offers a stunning reinterpretation of history's deadliest conflict.

Building on A People’s History of the United States, this radical world history captures the broad sweep of human history from the perspective of struggling classes. An “indispensable volume” on class and capitalism throughout the ages—for readers reckoning with the history they were taught and history as it truly was (Howard Zinn) From the earliest human societies to the Holy Roman Empire, from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the twentieth century, Chris Harman provides a brilliant and comprehensive history of the human race. Eschewing the standard accounts of “Great Men,” of dates and kings, Harman offers a groundbreaking counter-history, a breathtaking sweep across the centuries in the tradition of “history from below.” In a fiery narrative, he shows how ordinary men and women were involved in creating and changing society and how conflict between classes was often at the core of these developments. While many scholars see the victory of capitalism as now safely secured, Harman explains the rise and fall of societies and civilizations throughout the ages and demonstrates that history moves ever onward in every age. A vital corrective to traditional history, A People's History of the World is essential reading for anyone interested in how society has changed and developed and the possibilities for further radical progress.