Bringing together the work of scholars from Eastern and Western Europe, this volume re-examines the crucial moments in the five years leading up to the Cold War. With the aid of new evidence from the official records of former Communist countries, this fresh analysis of diplomatic relations, economic imperialism, and cultural influences on great, middle, and small-rank European powers reveals how and why the victors failed to reach an agreement on post-war order in Europe--a failure that resulted in a conflict that shaped the second half of the 20th century.

This is a wide-ranging study of how the British were more successful in managing the strains of modern industrial war than the French. The book addresses such current historical debates as the nature of the political Right and Left in Europe during the 1930s, the extent of rearmament and economic mobilization, and the causes of France's defeat in 1940.

Over the last few years, there has been a noticeable increase in studies on the postwar period of Germany, reflecting the crucial importance of these years for an understanding of the developments in the two Germanys. With her study of U.S. occupation policy and its effects on German social and political developments in Frankfurt, Munich, and Stuttgart, Rebecca Boehling offers a most valuable contribution to this debate. She examines the decisions made by the U.S. Military Government regarding German municipal personnel from the first year of the occupation, when all city officials were appointed directly by Military Government of with its explicit approval, through the first postwar municipal elections in 1946 and 1948, when democratic self-government was gradually restored. Boehling explores the far-reaching effects of personnel decisions on German political life within the framework of U.S. policies intended to denazify and democratize Germany. The conclusion she draws is that the early local-level German developments under U.S. occupation facilitated economic recovery in a manner that restricted the implementation of political and social goals of democratization.

After the German occupation of 1940, Britain was forced to reassess its relationship with Norway, a country largely on the periphery of the main theatres of the Second World War. Christopher Mann examines British military policy towards Norway, concentrating on the commando raids, deception planning and naval operations.

""Even though women were not supposed to be on the front lines, on the front lines we were. Women were not supposed to be interned either, but it happened to us. People should know what we endured. People should know what we can endure."" -- Lt. Col. Madeline Ullom More than one hundred U.S. Army and Navy nurses were stationed in Guam and the Philippines at the beginning of World War II. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, five navy nurses on Guam became the first American military women of World War II to be taken prisoner by the Japanese. More than seventy army nurses survived five months of combat conditions in the jungles of Bataan and Corregidor before being captured, only to endure more than three years in prison camps. When freedom came, the U.S. military ordered the nurses to sign agreements with the government not to discuss their horrific experiences. Evelyn Monahan and Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee have conducted numerous interviews with survivors and scoured archives for letters, diaries, and journals to uncover the heroism and sacrifices of these brave women.

Since the 1920s, an endless flow of studies has analyzed the political systems of fascism, theseizure of power, the nature of the regimes, the atrocities committed, and, finally, the wars waged against other countries. However, much less attention has been paid to the strategies of persuasion employed by the regimes to win over the masses for their cause. Among these, fascist propaganda has traditionally been seen as the key means of influencing public opinion. Only recently has the "fascination with Fascism" become a topic of enquiry that has also formed the guiding interest of this volume: it offers, for the first time, a comparative analysis of the forms and functions of theater in countries governed by fascist or para-fascist regimes. By examining a wide spectrum of theatrical manifestations in a number of States with a varying degree of fascistization, these studies establish some of the similarities and differences between the theatrical cultures of several cultures in the interwar period.

Between September 1939 and June 1940, the British Expeditionary Force confronted the German threat to France and Flanders with a confused mind-set, an uncertain skills-set and an uncompetitive capability. This book explores the formation's origins, the scale of defeat in France and the campaign's considerable legacy.

When Captain Ridley's shooting partyA" arrived at Bletchley Park in 1939 no-one would have guessed that by 1945 the guests would number nearly 10,000 and that collectively they would have contributed decisively to the Allied war effort. Their role? To decode the Enigma cypher used by the Germans for high-level communications. It is an astonishing story. A melting pot of Oxbridge dons maverick oddballs and more regular citizens worked night and day at Station X, as Bletchley Park was known, to derive intelligence information from German coded messages. Bear in mind that an Enigma machine had a possible 159 million million million different settings and the magnitude of the challenge becomes apparent. That they succeeded, despite military scepticism, supplying information that led to the sinking of the Bismarck, Montgomery's victory in North Africa and the D-Day landings, is testament to an indomitable spirit that wrenched British intelligence into the modern age, as the Second World War segued into the Cold War. Michael Smith constructs his absorbing narrative around the reminiscences of those who worked and played at Bletchley Park, and their stories add a very human colour to their cerebral activity. The code breakers of Station X did not win the war but they undoubtedly shortened it, and the lives saved on both sides stand as their greatest achievement.

'Gripping' Wall Street Journal ________________________ At first, gunner Clarence Smoyer and his fellow crewmen in the legendary 3rd Armored Division - 'Spearhead' - thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: the lead tank always gets hit. After seeing his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, Clarence and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art 'super tank', one of twenty in the European theatre. But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: now they will spearhead every attack and, in doing so, will lead the US Army into its largest urban battle of the war, the fight for Cologne, the 'Fortress City' of Germany... 'Spearhead shimmers in eclipsing moments of valor, luck and compassion.' Washington Times

A broadly interdisciplinary work, this handbook discusses the best and most enduring literature related to the major topics and themes of World War II. Military historiography is treated in essays on the major theaters of military operations and the related themes of logistics and intelligence, while political and diplomatic history is covered in chapters on international relations, resistance movements, and collaboration. The volume analyzes themes of domestic history in essays on economic mobilization, the home fronts, and women in the military and civilian life. The book also covers the Holocaust.

This handbook approaches each topic from a global viewpoint rather than focusing on individual national communities. Except for nonprint material, the literature, research, and sources surveyed are primarily those available in English. The volume is aimed at both experts on the war and the general academic community and will also be useful to students and serious laymen interested in the war.

A Luftwaffe Bomber Pilot Remembers is a bomber pilot's story from his early life prior to the ascension of the Nazi Party to power in Germany, his education and rise through the ranks of the Luftwaffe as a decorated bomber pilot, and even through his demotion at the hands of GAring late in the war. Also covered are Haeberlen's tribulations in a prisoner of war camp run by the Allies, and his success in post war Germany as a businessman. This book offers a unique first person perspective on the development of the war and its effect on those that were not in the highest realms of power.

The Navy of World War II, 1922-1946 comprehensively covers the vessels that defined this momentous 24-year period in U.S. naval history. Beginning with the lean, pared-down navy created by the treaty at the Washington Naval Conference, and ending with the massive, awe-inspiring fleets that led the Allies to victory in the Second World War, the fourth volume in the celebrated U.S. Navy Warship series presents a detailed guide to all the warships that exhibited the might of the U.S. Navy to the fullest. Showcasing all the ships-both the famous and the often overlooked-that propelled the U.S Navy to prominence in the first half of the twentieth century, The Navy of World War II catalogues all the warships from this era, including those that did battle in the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters from 1941-1946. From the fleet attacked at Pearl Harbor, to those that fought valiantly in the Battle of the Guadalcanal, to the official surrender of the Japanese on the deck of the USS Missouri, this latest volume is the definitive guide to the warships that defined this pivotal period in U.S. naval history. Each volume in the U.S. Navy Warship series represents the most meticulous scholarship for its particular era, providing an authoritative account of every ship in the history of the U. S. Navy from its first incarnation as the Continental Navy to its present position as one of the world's most formidable naval superpowers. Featuring convenient, easy-to-read tabular lists, every book in the series includes an abundance of illustrations, some never before published, along with figures for actions fought, damages sustained, casualties suffered, prizes taken, and ships sunk, ultimately making the series an indispensable reference tool for maritime buffs and military historians alike. A further article about Paul Silverstone and the Navy Warships series can be found at: http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18s180&SecId=180&AId=58892&ATypeId=1

'That nickname . . .' '"Little bird." It wasn't mine. I found out later he gave it to every little girl that came in to be injected. "Little Bird" didn't mean anything. It was a trick. There were thousands of "little birds", just like me, all thinking they were the only one.' As a reporter, Jacques Peretti has spent his life investigating important stories. But there was one story, heard in scattered fragments throughout his childhood, that he never thought to investigate. The story of how his mother survived Auschwitz. In the few last months of the Second World War, thirteen-year-old Alina Peretti, along with her mother and sister, was one of thirteen thousand non-Jewish Poles sent to Auschwitz. Her experiences there cast a shadow over the rest of her life. Now ninety, Alina has been diagnosed with dementia. Together, mother and son begin a race against time to record her memories and preserve her family's story. Along the way, Jacques learns long-hidden secrets about his mother's family. He gains an understanding of his mother through retracing her past, learning more about the woman who would never let him call her 'Mum'.

Combining theories of calculation and property relations and using an array of archival sources, this book focuses on the building and decommissioning of state- owned defense factories in World War II-era Chicago. Robert Lewis's rich trove of material-drawn from research on more than six hundred federally funded wartime industrial sites in metropolitan Chicago-supports three major conclu- sions. First, the relationship of the key institutions of the military-industrial complex was refashioned by their calculative actions on industrial property. The imperatives of war forced the federal state and the military to become involved in industrial matters in an entirely new manner. Second, federal and military investment in defence factories had an enormous e ect on the industrial geography of metropolitan Chicago. The channeling of huge lumps of industrial capital into sprawling plants on the urban fringe had a decisive impact on the metropolitan geographies of manufacturing. Third, the success of industrial mobilisation was made possible through the multiscale relations of national and locational interaction. National policy could only be realised by the placing of these relations at the local level. Throughout, Lewis shows how the interests of developers, factory engineers, corporate executives, politicians, unions, and the working class were intimately bound up with industrial space. Offering a local perspective on a city permanently shaped by national events, this book provides a richer understanding of the dynamics of wartime mobilization, the calculative actions of political and business leaders, the social relations of property, the working of state-industry relations, and the making of industrial space.

In the longer perspective, even the most momentous events can appear to lose coherence and significance. However, such was the impact of World War Two that even more than sixty years after its end, interest in the origins, course and consequences of the war continues to increase and generate debate. In this essential introductory guide, John Plowright casts a critical eye over the mass of literature that surrounds the conflict, focusing on key topics such as: - Nazi foreign policy and appeasement - the Fall of France - Operation Barbarossa and the Allied strategic bombing offensive - the impact of the war on Britain's international position and on American society - the movement towards European integration. This timely book provides an approachable synthesis of the scholarship relating to the causes, course and outcomes of the Second World War. It is ideal for all those in danger of drowning in the ocean of print on the subject and who wish to gain an understanding of the central issues and debates.

This extraordinary book tells the story of a remarkable family caught in Japan at the outbreak of the Second World War in the Pacific. With letters, journal extracts and notes from Hamish Brown's parents, as well as his own recollections, it brings the era to life: not only life in the dying days of the British Empire, but also the terrible reality of the invasion of Singapore into which they escaped.

The two concepts at the centre of this book: Europe, and the Second World War, are constantly changing in public perception. Now that 'Europe' is an even more contested idea than ever, this volume informs the current discourse on European identity by analysing Europe's reaction to the tragedy, heroism and disgrace of the Second World War.

"The Thought War" is the first book in English to examine the full extent of Japan's wartime propaganda. Based on a wide range of archival material and sources in Japanese, Chinese, and English, it explores the propaganda programs of the Japanese government from 1931 to 1945, demonstrating the true scope of imperial propaganda and its pervasive influence, an influence that is still felt today. Contrary to popular postwar rhetoric, it was not emperor worship or military authoritarianism that led an entire nation to war. Rather, it was the creation of a powerful image of Japan as the leader of modern Asia and the belief that the Japanese could and would guide Asia to a new, glorious period of reform that appealed to imperial subjects. Kushner analyzes the role of the police and military in defining socially acceptable belief and behavior by using their influence to root out malcontents. His research is the first of its kind to treat propaganda as a profession in wartime Japan. He shows that the leadership was not confined to the crude tools of sloganeering and government-sponsored demonstrations but was able instead to appropriate the expertise of the nation's advertising firms to "sell" the image of Japan as Asia's leader and modernizer. In his exploration of the propaganda war in popular culture and the entertainment industry, Kushner discloses how entertainers sought to bolster their careers by adopting as their own pro-war messages that then filtered down into society and took hold. Japanese propaganda frequently conflicted with Chinese and American visions of empire, and Kushner reveals the reactions of these two nations to Japan's efforts and the meaning of their responses.

The old Hawaiian Air Force met the attack of the Japanese on 7 December 1941. Redesignated the Seventh Air Force, its bomber units moved on to combat in the Pacific almost immediately. The Seventh Fighter Command, however, has held back to defend Oahu against air attacks that never came. The pilots of the fighter units frustrated at their static role, said that they were left guarding the pineapples. From the cadre of the original Hawaiian units they spawned two new fighter groups. Eventually, those fighter squadrons, a close-knit fraternity, began to garrison outlying island bases, and eventually saw combat in the Marshals-Gilberts, the Marianas. Finally toward war's end, they were flying long-range missions against Japan from Ie Shima and Iwo Jima. The lieutenants of 1941 were the colonels of 1945, and some survivors served until the Japanese surrender

Why has the 'people's war' been such a durable and attractive myth? Creating the people's war examines how civil defence personnel engaged with this narrative during the war and in the following decades to answer this question. Civil defence was the most significant voluntary organisation of the Second World War, involving millions of men and women of every class, generation and locality in Britain. This book shows how local communities of civil defence personnel co-developed narratives about the value of their work which challenged hierarchies of war service. In their social groups volunteers wrote themselves into the 'people's war' and invested it with meaning, creating national identity from the bottom up. Community was both central to these representations and vital for their production. -- .

"On June 20, 1945, just before the end of the war, 123 American bombers took off from the island of Guam for an attack on Shizuoka, a Japanese city at the foot of Mount Fuji. The raid destroyed two-thirds of the city, taking the lives of two thousand of its citizens. Twenty-three American airmen also died when two of their planes collided in mid-air. That these twenty-three men were enemy soldiers mattered little to one Japanese person who buried their remains next to the graves of the Shizuoka citizens killed in the attack and erected a memorial for them there. Many years later, in 1971, another Shizuoka citizen learned of this. He began holding his own ceremony beside the memorial, praying for the souls of the twenty-three Americans each year on the Saturday closest to June 20. Though the two countries were once at war, the selfless action of one Shizuoka citizen over sixty years ago has built a bridge between the two countries, inspiring a campaign for peace among Japanese and American citizens, and strengthening ties between the two countries. Having campaigned for peace for many years, this beautiful story strikes a deep chord with me. I hope it will become more widely known around the world and inspire other people too." Imagine Peace, Yoko Ono "Jerry Yellin takes you from the terror of war to the everlasting hope of peace, in a unique story of World War II. -A human story like no other. God bless you, Dr. Sugano." John Colli, Nephew of Ken Colli from The Blackened Canteen "Words cannot express the true feelings of the heart when reading "The Blackened Canteen." We are brought to tears with the realization that this author cared enough to honor these fallen heroes of WWII. This fictional account has been faithfully told based on the facts of these American Soldiers lives. What a true blessing " Lucy (Towle) Spence, daughter of Newton Towle from The Blackened Canteen

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This collection by leading British and American scholars on twentieth century international history covers the strategy, diplomacy and intelligence of the Anglo-American-Soviet alliance during the Second World War. It includes the evolution of allied war aims in both the European and Pacific theatres, the policies surrounding the development and use of the atomic bomb and the evolution of the international intelligence community. It also considers the origins and consequences of inter-allied economic relations as they emerged during the war and the personal relationship between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.