|
|
Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > Second World War
How did a socialist society, ostensibly committed to Marxist ideals
of internationalism and global class struggle, reconcile itself to
notions of patriotism, homeland, Russian ethnocentrism, and the
glorification of war? In this provocative new history, Jonathan
Brunstedt pursues this question through the lens of the myth and
remembrance of victory in World War II - arguably the central
defining event of the Soviet epoch. The book shows that while the
experience and legacy of the conflict did much to reinforce a sense
of Russian exceptionalism and Russian-led ethnic hierarchy, the
story of the war enabled an alternative, supra-ethnic source of
belonging, which subsumed Russian and non-Russian loyalties alike
to the Soviet whole. The tension and competition between
Russocentric and 'internationalist' conceptions of victory, which
burst into the open during the late 1980s, reflected a wider
struggle over the nature of patriotic identity in a multiethnic
society that continues to reverberate in the post-Soviet space. The
book sheds new light on long-standing questions linked to the
politics of remembrance and provides a crucial historical context
for the patriotic revival of the war's memory in Russia today.
In late 1941, President Roosevelt agonized over the rapid advances
of the Japanese forces in Asia; they seemed unstoppable. He foresaw
their intentions of taking India and linking up with the two other
Axis Powers, Germany and Italy, in an attempt to conquer the
Eastern Hemisphere. US naval forces had been surprised and
diminished in Pearl Harbor and the army was not only outnumbered
but also ill-prepared to take on the invading hoards. One of
Roosevelt's few options was to form a defensive line on the eastern
side of the Patkai and Himalayan Ranges; there, he could look for
support from the Chinese and Burmese. It was the only defence to a
Japanese invasion of India. To support and supply the troops who
were fighting in hostile jungle terrain, where overland routes had
been cut off, he desperately needed to set up an air supply from
Eastern India. His problem was lack of aircraft and experienced
pilots to fly the dangerous 'Hump, over the world's highest
mountains. Hence the inception of Operation Seven Alpha, a plan to
enlist the aircraft - DC-3s - and the pilots - veterans of World
War One - of American Airlines.This newly formed elite Squadron
would fly the medium-range aircraft in a series of long-distance
hops across the Pacific and Southern Asia to the Assam Valley in
India. They would then create and operate the vital supply route,
carrying arms, ammunition and food Eastward to the Allied bases,
before returning with wounded personnel. This is the story of that
little-known operation, carried out in the early days of the Burma
Campaign. The book is based on first-hand experiences of those who
were involved, and it serves as a fitting tribute to the bravery
and inventiveness of a band of men who answered their country's
desperate call at the outset of the war against Japan in Asia.
How did overseas Europeans participate in the two world wars'
effort? Which were the tensions around mobilization? How did the
war affect their identity and their descendants? What were their
mobilization's effects on the relationship with the adopted
homelands? These closely intertwined issues connect to the central
argument of the book: war exerted a crucial influence on the
configuration - and reconfiguration - of those European
communities' national or ethnic identities and made evident their
transnational nature. Through different case studies, this volume
approached the multi-faceted, complex, and fluid nature of
immigrant collective identities under the pressures and challenges
of total wars. Contributors are: Juan Pablo Artinian, Juan Luis
Carrellan Ruiz, Hernan M. Diaz, Norman Fraser Brown, Marcelo
Huernos, Milagros Martinez-Flener, Norman Fraser Brown, German C.
Friedmann, Maria Ines Tato, and Stefan Rinke.
Miss Dior is a wartime story of freedom and fascism, beauty and
betrayal and 'a gripping story' (Antonia Fraser). 'Exceptional . .
. Miss Dior is so much more than a biography. It's about how
necessity can drive people to either terrible deeds or acts of
great courage, and how beauty can grow from the worst kinds of
horror.' DAILY TELEGRAPH Miss Dior explores the relationship
between the visionary designer Christian Dior and his beloved
younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and
shaped his vision of femininity. Justine Picardie's journey takes
her to wartime Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills
while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance and the
battle against the Nazis, until she was captured by the Gestapo and
deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbruck. Tracing
the wartime paths of the Dior siblings leads Picardie deep into
other hidden histories, and different forms of resistance and
sisterhood. She discovers what it means to believe in beauty and
hope, despite our knowledge of darkness and despair, and reveals
the timeless solace of the natural world in the aftermath of
devastation and destruction. *A beautiful, full colour package
featuring over 200 archival images.* 'Extraordinary . . . Picardie
uses her investigative reporting skills . . . the result is
Netflix-worthy and the pace page-turning . . . Catherine's story
shines - the quiet Dior who preferred flowers to fashion, the
unsung heroine who survived the abuse of the Third Reich to help
liberate France.' SUNDAY TIMES
This book examines works of four German-Jewish scholars who, in
their places of exile, sought to probe the pathology of the Nazi
mind: Wilhelm Reich's The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), Erich
Fromm's Escape from Freedom (1941), Siegfried Kracauer's From
Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film
(1947), and Erich Neumann's Depth Psychology and a New Ethic
(1949). While scholars have examined these authors' individual
legacies, no comparative analysis of their shared concerns has yet
been undertaken, nor have the content and form of their
psychological inquiries into Nazism been seriously and
systematically analyzed. Yet, the sense of urgency in their works
calls for attention. They all took up their pens to counter Nazi
barbarism, believing, like the English jurist and judge Sir William
Blackstone, who wrote in 1753 - scribere est agere ("to write is to
act").
'London Calling Italy offers an expertly researched,
thought-provoking analysis of BBC propaganda for Italy during the
Second World War, exploring how programmes were put together and
what listeners made of them. It will surely become the key work on
this topic.' Simon Potter, Professor of Modern History at the
University of Bristol London calling Italy is a book about Radio
Londra, as the BBC Italian Service was known in Italy, and the
company's development as a global leader in the broadcasting
industry, starting from the Second World War. Drawing on unexplored
archive material collected in Italy and the United Kingdom, it aims
to understand how the BBC programmes engaged with ordinary
Italians, while concurrently conducting political warfare against
fascist Italy. The book also focuses on the relationship between
the BBC Italian anti-fascist broadcasters, the British Foreign
Office, and Labour Party. Key sources analysed in the book are,
among others, the Foreign Office's records, the programmes
broadcast by the BBC Italian Service during the Allied campaign,
the memoirs of Italian anti-fascist broadcasters, the BBC surveys
on the audience and the letters sent by listeners of the Italian
Service. -- .
'A METICULOUS HISTORY THAT READS LIKE A THRILLER' BEN MACINTYRE,
TEN BEST BOOKS TO READ ABOUT WORLD WAR II An astounding story of
heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over shocking
adversity. 'A rousing tale of derring-do' THE TIMES * 'Riveting'
MICK HERRON * 'Superb' IRISH TIMES THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In
September 1941, a young American woman strides up the steps of a
hotel in Lyon, Vichy France. Her papers say she is a journalist.
Her wooden leg is disguised by a determined gait and a distracting
beauty. She is there to spark the resistance. By 1942 Virginia Hall
was the Gestapo's most urgent target, having infiltrated Vichy
command, trained civilians in guerrilla warfare and sprung soldiers
from Nazi prison camps. The first woman to go undercover for
British SOE, her intelligence changed the course of the war - but
her fight was still not over. This is a spy history like no other,
telling the story of the hunting accident that disabled her, the
discrimination she fought and the secret life that helped her
triumph over shocking adversity. 'A cracking story about an
extraordinarily brave woman' TELEGRAPH 'Gripping ... superb ... a
rounded portrait of a complicated, resourceful, determined and
above all brave woman' IRISH TIMES WINNER of the PLUTARCH AWARD FOR
BEST BIOGRAPHY
A compelling and in-depth history of one of the world's greatest
armoured warfare commanders, Hermann Balck (1897-1982). During
World War II, Balck commanded panzer troops from the front line and
led by example, putting himself in extreme danger when rallying his
soldiers to surge forward. He fought battles that were masterpieces
of tactical operations, utilizing speed, surprise and a remarkable
ability to motivate his men to achieve what they considered to be
impossible. We follow his journey through the fields of France,
mountains of Greece and steppes of Russia. In Greece, through flair
and innovative leadership, his soldiers overcame every obstacle to
defeat determined Australian and New Zealand soldiers defending the
narrow mountain passes. Balck personally led his men to victory in
battles at Platamon Ridge on the Aegean coast and in the Vale of
Tempe, before entering Athens. This is also the story of a cultured
and complex man with a great love of antiquity and classical
literature, who nevertheless willingly fought for Hitler's Third
Reich while remaining strangely detached from the horrors around
him. The book is the result of extensive research of primary and
secondary sources, including Balck's battle reports and first-hand
accounts written by Allied soldiers who opposed him, panzer
division war diaries and campaign assessments, and declassified
Pentagon documents.
Drawing on oral-history interviews and other sources, this work
provides fascinating accounts of how Soviets, Jews, and Roma fared
in the Russian city of Smolensk under the 26-month Nazi occupation.
The 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union ("Operation
Barbarossa") significantly altered the lives of the civilians in
occupied Russian territories, yet these individuals' stories are
overlooked by most scholarly treatments ofthe attack and its
aftermath. This study, drawing on oral-history interviews and a
broad range of archival sources, provides a fascinating and
detailed account of the everyday life of Soviets, Jews, Roma, and
Germans in the city of Smolensk during its twenty-six months under
Nazi rule. Smolensk under the Nazis records the profound and
painful effects of the invasion and occupation on the 30,000
civilian residents (out of a prewar population ofroughly 155,000)
who remained in this border town. It also compares Nazi and
Stalinist local propaganda efforts, as well as examining the stance
of Russian civilians, thereby investigating what it meant to
support -- or hinder --the new Nazi-German and collaborating
Russian authorities. By underlining the human dimensions of the war
and its often neglected long-term effects, Laurie Cohen promotes a
more complex understanding of life under occupation. Smolensk under
the Nazis thus complements recent works on everyday life in
occupied Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic States as well as on the
siege of Leningrad. Laurie R. Cohen is Adjunct Professor at the
Universities of Innsbruck and Klagenfurt.
In the terrifying summer of 1942 in Belgium, when the Nazis began
the brutal roundup of Jewish families, parents searched desperately
for safe haven for their children. As Suzanne Vromen reveals in
Hidden Children of the Holocaust, these children found sanctuary
with other families and schools--but especially in Roman Catholic
convents and orphanages.
Vromen has interviewed not only those who were hidden as children,
but also the Christian women who rescued them, and the nuns who
gave the children shelter, all of whose voices are heard in this
powerfully moving book. Indeed, here are numerous first-hand
memoirs of life in a wartime convent--the secrecy, the humor, the
admiration, the anger, the deprivation, the cruelty, and the
kindness--all with the backdrop of the terror of the Nazi
occupation. We read the stories of the women of the Resistance who
risked their lives in placing Jewish children in the care of the
Church, and of the Mothers Superior and nuns who sheltered these
children and hid their identity from the authorities. Perhaps most
riveting are the stories told by the children themselves--abruptly
separated from distraught parents and given new names, the children
were brought to the convents with a sense of urgency, sometimes
under the cover of darkness. They were plunged into a new life,
different from anything they had ever known, and expected to adapt
seamlessly. Vromen shows that some adapted so well that they
converted to Catholicism, at times to fit in amid the daily prayers
and rituals, but often because the Church appealed to them. Vromen
also examines their lives after the war, how they faced the
devastating loss of parents to the Holocaust, struggled to
regaintheir identities and sought to memorialize those who saved
them.
This remarkable book offers an inspiring chronicle of the brave
individuals who risked everything to protect innocent young
strangers, as well as a riveting account of the "hidden children"
who lived to tell their stories.
It was the British victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November
1942 that inspired one of Winston Churchill's most famous
aphorisms: 'This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of
the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning'. And yet the
significance of this episode remains unrecognised. In this
thrilling historical account, Jonathan Dimbleby describes the
political and strategic realities that lay behind the battle,
charting the nail-biting months that led to the victory at El
Alamein in November 1942. It is a story of high drama, played out
both in the war capitals of London, Washington, Berlin, Rome and
Moscow, and at the front in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morrocco and
Algeria and in the command posts and foxholes in the desert.
Destiny in the Desert is about politicians and generals, diplomats,
civil servants and soldiers. It is about forceful characters and
the tensions and rivalries between them. Drawing on official
records and the personal insights of those involved at every level,
Dimbleby creates a vivid portrait of a struggle which for Churchill
marked the turn of the tide - and which for the soldiers on the
ground involved fighting and dying in a foreign land. Now available
in paperback in time, Destiny in the Desert, which was shortlisted
for the Hessell-Tiltman prize 2012-13, is required reading for
anyone with an interest in the Desert War.
A remarkable insight into the training and techniques of Allied
agents operating behind enemy lines during the Second World War.
Most wars have had some element of espionage and subterfuge, but
few have included as much as the Second World War, where the
all-embracing nature of the conflict, new technology, and the
battle of ideologies conspired to make almost everywhere a war
zone. The occupation of much of Europe in particular left huge
areas that could be exploited. Partisans, spies and saboteurs
risked everything in a limbo where the normal rules of war were
usually suspended. Concealment of oneself, one's weapons and
equipment, was vital, and so were the new methods and hardware
which were constantly evolving in a bid to stay ahead of the
Gestapo and security services. Silent killing, disguise, covert
communications and the arts of guerrilla warfare were all advanced
as the war progressed. With the embodiment and expansion of
organisations such as the British SOE and the American OSS, and the
supply of special forces units which operated behind enemy lines,
clandestine warfare became a permanent part of the modern military
and political scene. Perhaps surprisingly many of these hitherto
secret techniques and pieces of equipment were put into print at
the time and many examples are now becoming available. This manual
brings together a selection of these dark arts and extraordinary
objects and techniques in their original form, under one cover to
build up an authentic picture of the Allied spy.
Tales of a Tin Can Sailor is a wide ranging story of a sailor, two
ships and many dedicated fighting men who, working together with a
single purpose, accomplished sometimes heroic things. From waging
submarine warfare in the Atlantic, participating in all of the
invasions in the Mediterranean, to battling kamikazes in the
Pacific, shooting down the last Japanese plane, with a task group
the first to fire on the Japanese mainland, and the first allied
ship of any kind to drop anchor in Tokyo Bay. Of particular
interest and historical significance, are the actions described
during the year spent in the Mediterranean. In all of the
invasions-Sicily, Salerno and Anzio-the Navy played a major role in
the success of each of the landings. None more so than the Salerno
operation, where the Navy prevented the defeat and evacuation of
our forces from Italy, the first landing on the European continent.
This book provides the first ever intelligence history of Iraq from
1941 to 1945, and is the third and final volume of a trilogy on
regional intelligence and counterintelligence operations that
includes Nazi Secret Warfare in Occupied Persia (Iran) (2014), and
Espionage and Counterintelligence in Occupied Persia (Iran) (2015).
This account of covert operations in Iraq during the Second World
War is based on archival documents, diaries, and memoirs,
interspersed with descriptions of all kinds of clandestine
activity, and contextualized with analysis showing the significance
of what happened regionally in terms of the greater war. After
outlining the circumstances of the rise and fall of the fascist
Gaylani regime, Adrian O'Sullivan examines the activities of the
Allied secret services (CICI, SOE, SIS, and OSS) in Iraq, and the
Axis initiatives planned or mounted against them. O'Sullivan
emphasizes the social nature of human intelligence work and
introduces the reader to a number of interesting, talented
personalities who performed secret roles in Iraq, including the
distinguished author Dame Freya Stark.
When Europe went to war in 1939 the expectation was that this war
would see a repeat of the scenes of 1914-18. However, the Wehrmacht
was to change all that. Learning the lessons of World War I, the
Germans unleashed fast, mobile armoured columns at the Allies, who
were unprepared for the swift nature of modern war. Blitzkrieg:
Hitler's Lightning War in Photographs is an illustrated record of
this awesome new tactic and the success it brought to Nazi Germany
in the first few years of the war. Drawing on previously
unpublished photographs, many of which have come from the albums of
individuals who experienced and took part in the war, Blitzkrieg:
Hitler's Lightning War in Photographs presents a unique and
visually stunning account of one of history's most infamous wars,
telling the story of what happened from the perspective of ordinary
soldiers. From Poland in 1939, and France and the Low Countries in
1940, to the North African desert in 1941-2, this is a glimpse into
the workings of a highly professional and extremely successful war
machine.
The Nazi invasion of Poland was the first step in an unremittingly
brutal occupation, one most infamously represented by the network
of death camps constructed on Polish soil. The systematic murder of
Jews in the camps has understandably been the focus of much
historical attention. Less well-remembered today is the fate of
millions of non-Jewish Polish civilians, who-when they were not
expelled from their homeland or forced into slave labor-were
murdered in vast numbers both within and outside of the camps.
Drawing on both German and Polish sources, In the Shadow of
Auschwitz gives a definitive account of the depredations inflicted
upon Polish society, tracing the ruthless implementation of a
racial ideology that cast ethnic Poles as an inferior race.
The Damanhur Federation, situated in Valchiusella, North-West
Italy, is one of Europe's longest-lasting spiritual-esoteric
communities. Nevertheless, there has hitherto been nearly no
scientific study of this group, with the exception of a handful of
specialised-journal articles. This collection fills that gap by
collating the various scholarly contributions which over the years
have dealt with Damanhur, aiming to present the phenomenon to a
public of specialists, students and people who are just curious in
a volume focusing on the multidisciplinary nature of the community
as a whole. We consider the various spheres making up the social,
cultural, spiritual and organisational life of Damanhur through
analysis and interpretation of its historical evolution and more
recent changes which have affected the community since its
founder's death. The contributions combine field research with
theoretical reflection, making use of both qualitative (discursive
interviews and participant observation) and quantitative
(questionnaires) methods.
" Constructed in 1923, the American submarine S39 was
practically an antique when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. With
defective torpedoes, a semi-trained crew, and a primitive
ventilation system (hence the nickname), she nevertheless sank two
enemy vessels and eluded pursuit to fight again in the Solomons.
This is the little-known story of how an unprepared navy fought
with what it had until the tide could be turned. Bobette Gugliotta
was one of the S-39 wives. With the technical assistance of her
husband, Guy, an officer who served on three of the S-class boats
during the war, she presents an accurate and absorbing account of
submarine operations and warfare. No less valuable is her candid
and sympathetic portrayal of the men and women whose lives were
caught up in the voyage of the S-39.
|
|