This book offers a thorough reinterpretation of U.S. engagement with the Mediterranean during World War II. Andrew Buchanan argues that the United States was far from being a reluctant participant in a peripheral theater, and that Washington had a major grand-strategic interest in the region. By the end of the war the Mediterranean was essentially an American lake, and the United States had substantial political and economic interests extending from North Africa, via Italy and the Balkans, to the Middle East. This book examines the military, diplomatic, and economic processes by which this hegemonic position was assembled and consolidated. It discusses the changing character of the Anglo-American alliance, the establishment of post-war spheres of influence, the nature of presidential leadership, and the common interest of all the leaders of the Grand Alliance in blocking the development of potentially revolutionary movements emerging from the chaos of war, occupation, and economic breakdown.

This book offers a thorough reinterpretation of US engagement with the Mediterranean during World War II. Andrew Buchanan argues that the United States was far from being a reluctant participant in a 'peripheral' theater, and that Washington had a major grand-strategic interest in the region. By the end of the war the Mediterranean was essentially an American lake, and the United States had substantial political and economic interests extending from North Africa, via Italy and the Balkans, to the Middle East. This book examines the military, diplomatic, and economic processes by which this hegemonic position was assembled and consolidated. It discusses the changing character of the Anglo-American alliance, the establishment of post-war spheres of influence, the nature of presidential leadership, and the common interest of all the leaders of the 'Grand Alliance' in blocking the development of potentially revolutionary movements emerging from the chaos of war, occupation, and economic breakdown.

This book presents interpretations, reflections, corrections, and questions concerning the American strategy in World War II. The attention is focused on grand strategy, that is, on strategy at the highest level of outlook and decision.

From the Torch landings in North Africa in 1942 to D-Day in June 1944 the Mediterranean basin saw the largest overseas deployment of U.S. troops outside the Pacific. Moreover, the United States, in an adversarial alliance with Britain, enjoyed considerable success there: Axis forces were driven from North Africa; Mussolini was ousted and--eventually--a liberal government established in Rome, heading off potentially revolutionary upheavals; an American-equipped French army was returned to France. Other successes were less obvious, but nonetheless significant: American economic inducements helped keep Spain out of the war, and Washington, utilizing covert operations as a lever for diplomatic intervention, reached into the Balkans. Everywhere American money followed American arms, establishing networks of trade stretching from the oil-rich Middle East to the Western Basin. These economic relationships, interwoven with a permanent postwar military presence, gave Washington a commanding regional position in the early years of the Cold War. Yet for all Washington's success, American intervention in the Mediterranean has long been viewed as a mere adjunct to campaigns in France and Germany, at best a useful preparation for the main event, at worst a protracted diversion from it. This perception is rooted both in contemporary divisions--particularly those between President Roosevelt and his chiefs of staff--and in Cold War renderings of debates between American leaders and their British counterparts. This study, based on a re-examination of the processes of Allied strategic decision-making and on a reappraisal of its relationship to broader military, political, and economic developments, reasserts the importance of the Mediterranean to the development Washington's wartime grand strategy and to the realization of American hegemony in Western Europe. It also highlights the role of leadership, operating within historically determined circumstances, in shaping deep impulses towards the extension of national power. Particularly during the critical months of its inception, President Roosevelt carried the drive towards active American engagement in the Mediterranean virtually single-handedly, and in the face of fierce opposition from his military advisers. His drive, I argue, was informed not only by immediate strategic and political considerations, but also by a projection of "Americanism" that would ultimately shape the postwar capitalist world and America's hegemonic position within it.

Recounts events in the Mediterranean during World War II, including how the inexperienced Americans gained combat experience and learned to work together with the British.

World War II left virtually no nation or corner of the world untouched, dramatically transforming human life and society. It prompted the unprecedented mobilization of whole societies and witnessed a scale of state-sanctioned violence that staggers the imagination, with more than 100 million casualties. The war resulted in an almost complete collapse of any norms geared toward avoiding the unnecessary loss of civilian life and shaped the worldview and psyches of generations. The Oxford Handbook of World War II broadens traditional narratives of the war and in the process changes our understanding of this epic conflict. Organized both chronologically and thematically and with particular attention to the pre- and post-war eras, the Handbook revises and extends existing scholarship. With chapters on the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, the land war in Western Europe, the Battle of Britain, the impact of war on the major combatants (Great Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and China), the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the decision to use the atomic bomb in 1945, and the cultural responses to the war, the chapters span much of the twentieth century. They suggest areas of scholarly consensus, identify interpretative clashes, and propose agendas for further scholarly investigation, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary inquiry. For example, the end of the Cold War had a profound impact on the way World War II was understood. Many formerly closed records in the former Soviet Union and China were opened to scholars, facilitating a more complex view of the Soviet war effort and suggesting that Stalin's army did not simply triumph by overwhelming German forces with sheer numbers but mastered the demands of a vast and logistically demanding front. In conceptualizing the volume, editors Kurt Piehler and Jonathan Grant also sought out contributions on lesser known aspects of the war, such as the Bengal famine in India, the treatment of prisoners of war, the role of Middle Eastern nations, and the activities of non-governmental organizations in ameliorating suffering. Spanning the rise and fall of the Versailles system to the postwar reintegration of veterans and the eventual commemoration of the conflict and its victims, The Oxford Handbook of World War II marks a landmark contribution to the historical literature of war.