In the wake of the Second World War, Samuel Beckett wrote some of the most significant literary works of the 20th century. This is the first full-length historical study to examine the far-reaching impact of the war on Beckett's creative and intellectual sensibilities. Drawing on a substantial body of archival material, including letters, manuscripts, diaries and interviews, as well as a wealth of historical sources, this book explores Beckett's writing in a range of political contexts, from the racist dogma of Nazism and aggressive traditionalism of the Vichy regime to Irish neutrality censorship and the politics of recovery in the French Fourth Republic. Along the way, Samuel Beckett and the Second World War casts new light on Beckett's political commitments and his concepts of history as they were formed during Europe's darkest hour.

World War II is one of the first conflicts to be extensively recorded in detail by both combatants and journalists, and many iconic photos of the fighting and battlefields have been passed down to us today. But how do these battlefields look now, following the extensive rebuilding of the postwar era? Featuring 75 battlefield sites divided by wartime theatre, World War II Battlefields allows the reader to explore well-known battle locations today and compare them to images captured during the height of the conflict. Examine the huge concrete bunker at Fort Eben Emael, Belgium, captured by German glider troops in May 1940 and still intact today; see the beaches at Tarawa atoll, a scene of fierce fighting between the US Marines and the Japanese defenders in 1943; or the streets of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the centre of a bloody battle between the II SS Panzer Korps and the Red Army; explore the Norman village of Villers-Bocage, where a few German Tiger tanks halted the advance of the British 7th Armoured Division a week after the D-Day landings; see the twin-medieval towers of the bridge at Remagen on the Rhine river, made famous in photos and movies; see the dozens of Japanese ships sunk in Truk Lagoon following comprehensive American air attacks, and today a popular dive site; and examine Monte Cassino monastery in Italy, destroyed by Allied aerial bombing and since completely rebuilt as a place of pilgrimage.

Dillon J. Carroll's Invisible Wounds examines the effects of military service, particularly combat, on the psyches and emotional well-being of Civil War soldiers-Black and white, North and South. Soldiers faced harsh military discipline, arduous marches, poor rations, debilitating diseases, and the terror of battle, all of which took a severe psychological toll. While mental collapses sometimes occurred during the war, the emotional damage soldiers incurred more often became apparent in the postwar years, when it manifested itself in disturbing and self-destructive behavior. Carroll explores the dynamic between the families of mentally ill veterans and the superintendents of insane asylums, as well as between those superintendents and doctors in the nascent field of neurology, who increasingly believed the central nervous system or cultural and social factors caused mental illness. Invisible Wounds is a sweeping reevaluation of the mental damage inflicted by the nation's most tragic conflict.

Shortlisted for the 2021 Society for Army Historical Research's Templer Medal Operation Crusader, launched in November 1941, was the third and final British attempt to relieve the siege of Tobruk and break the German and Italian forces in North Africa. After tough initial fighting, the British made important gains, only to be countered by a stunning breakthrough overseen personally by Lt. General Erwin Rommel. As the British situation teetered, the commander of the 8th Army, Lt. General Alan Cunningham, was relieved of duty by his superior, General Claude Auchinleck. This decision changed the direction of the battle and perhaps the war itself. Why and how Cunningham was relieved has been the subject of commentary and speculation since it occurred. Using newly discovered evidence, Alexander Joffe rethinks the events that brought about the sudden relief of the operation's commanding officer, including insubordination. The book then discusses how narratives regarding the operation were created, were incorporated into British and Commonwealth official and unofficial historical writing about the war, and contributed to British historical memory. Based on a decade of archival work, the book presents a new and detailed analysis of a consequential battle and, importantly, of how its history was written and received in the context of post-war Britain.

In 2003, Major William Edwards and Lt. Colonel Robert P. Walters of the 165th Military Intelligence Battalion were given the near-impossible task of improving the U.S. Army's security posture at Abu Ghraib prison under unfathomable conditions. With input from officers who served with them, their candid firsthand accounts of life at the notorious prison reveal unpublished details of the human devastation that took place there, along with unexpected glimpses of humanity.