This book, coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the Liberation of France, takes a unique approach to the events of 1944, by seeing them as shared experiences which brought ordinary Anglo-Americans and French people into contact with each other in a variety of different communities. The book looks at the Liberation through 5 case-studies: Normandy, Cherbourg, Provence, the Pyrbliogenbliogees-Orientales and Reims, and uses the words of participants at the time to describe the developing relationship between Liberators and Liberated.

Arguing against the prevailing view that Holocaust survivors (encouraged by a new and flourishing culture of 'witnessing') have come forward only recently to tell their stories,Writing the Holocaust examines the full history of Holocaust testimony, from the first chroniclers confined to Nazi-enforced ghettos to today's survivors writing as part of collective memory. Zoe Waxman shows how the conditions and motivations for bearing witness changed immeasurably. She reveals the multiplicity of Holocaust experiences, the historically contingent nature of victims' responses, and the extent to which their identities - secular or religious, male or female, East or West European - affected not only what they observed but also how they have written about their experiences. In particular, she demonstrates that what survivors remember is substantially determined by the context in which they are remembering.

The many factors that led to Japan's participation in World War II, and the horrifying battles that resulted, come into focus in Japan's War: The Great Pacific Conflict. The book, which takes into account Japanese and Asian documents and scholarship in addition to American and European sources, chronicles events in the Pacific from 1853 to 1951. During those years, the leaders of Japan, believing in the superiority of their nation and culture, sought to dominate East Asia and the Pacific Basin. That period also saw Japan and America becoming entangled in each other's national affairs, starting when Commodore Perry's ships ended Japan's isolation policy, and continuing into the occupation by the U. S. Army following the war. Author Hoyt shows conflicting personalities and historical context that led to the rise of Japanese militarism and wars with China and Russia. Japan's War examines the decisions that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the escalating climate of violence that resulted in the Rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March.

Hollywood's South Seas and the Pacific War explores the expectations, experiences, and reactions of Allied servicemen and women who served in the wartime Pacific. Viewing the South Pacific through the lens of Hollywood's South Seas, Americans and their Allies expected to find glamorous women who resembled the famous 'sarong girl, ' Dorothy Lamour. But Dorothy was nowhere to be seen. Despite those disappointments popular images proved resilient, and at war's end the 'old' South Seas re-emerged almost unscathed. Based on extensive archival research, Hollywood's South Seas and the Pacific War explores the intersections between military experiences and cultural history.

Did the bombing of Japan's cities culminating in the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki hasten the end of World War II? Edwin Hoyt, World War II scholar and author, argues against the U. S. justification of the bombing. In his new book, Inferno, Hoyt shows how the U. S. bombed without discrimination, hurting Japanese civilians far more than the Japanese military. Hoyt accuses Major General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force leader who helped plan the destruction of Dresden, of committing a war crime through his plan to burn Japan's major cities to the ground. The firebombing raids conducted by LeMay's squadrons caused far more death than the two atomic blasts. Throughout cities built largely from wood, incendiary bombs started raging fires that consumed houses and killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. The survivors of the raids recount their stories in Inferno, remembering their terror as they fled to shelter through burning cities, escaping smoke, panicked crowds, and collapsing buildings. Hoyt's descriptions of the widespread death and destruction of Japan depicts a war machine operating without restraint. Inferno offers a provocative look at what may have been America's most brutal policy during the years of World War II.

"NEW YORK TIMES" BESTSELLER In the second volume of his epic trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the harrowing story of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy In "An Army at Dawn"--winner of the Pulitzer Prize--Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in "The Day of Battle," he follows the strengthening American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943 and then, mile by bloody mile, fight their way north toward Rome.
The Italian campaign's outcome was never certain; in fact, Roosevelt, Churchill, and their military advisers engaged in heated debate about whether an invasion of the so-called soft underbelly of Europe was even a good idea. But once under way, the commitment to liberate Italy from the Nazis never wavered, despite the agonizingly high price. The battles at Salerno, Anzio, and Monte Cassino were particularly difficult and lethal, yet as the months passed, the Allied forces continued to drive the Germans up the Italian peninsula. Led by Lieutenant General Mark Clark, one of the war's most complex and controversial commanders, American officers and soldiers became increasingly determined and proficient. And with the liberation of Rome in June 1944, ultimate victory at last began to seem inevitable.
Drawing on a wide array of primary source material, written with great drama and flair, this is narrative history of the first rank. With "The Day of Battle," Atkinson has once again given us the definitive account of one of history's most compelling military campaigns.

Examines the reputation of the Hungarian musician Bela Bartok (1881-1945) as an antifascist hero. This book examines the reputation of the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) as an antifascist hero and beacon of freedom. Following Bartok's reception in Italy from the early twentieth century, through Mussolini's fascist regime, and into the early Cold War, Palazzetti explores the connexions between music, politics and diplomacy. The wider context of this study also offers glimpses into broader themes such as fascist cultural policies, cultural resistance, and the ambivalent political usage of modernist music. The book argues that the 'Bartokian Wave' occurring in Italy after the Second World War was the result of the fusion of the Bartok myth as the 'musician of freedom' and the Cold War narrative of an Italian national regeneration. Italian-Hungarian diplomatic cooperation during the interwar period had supported Bartok's success in Italy. But, in spite of their political alliance, the cultural policies by Europe's leading fascist regimes started to diverge over the years: many composers proscribed in Nazi Germany were increasingly performed in fascist Italy. In the early 1940s, the now exiled composer came to represent one of the symbols of the anti-Nazi cultural resistance in Italy and was canonised as 'the musician of freedom'. Exile and death had transformed Bartok into a martyr, just as the Resistenza and the catastrophe of war had redeemed post-war Italy.

First published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

As neo-fascist rumblings are being felt again throughout Europe, it is proper to re-examine the development of the Third Reich and the philosophies of its leaders. The Nazi Elite presents twenty-two biographical sketches of some of the most notorious fascist leaders of the twentieth century: Joseph Goebbels, propagandist extraordinaire; Heinrich Himmler, the director of the infamous SS; Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi foreign minister; Rudolf Hess, considered by many to be deputy Fuehrer; Hermann Goerring, Hitler's right- hand man; Martin Bormann; Alfred Rosenberg; Otto Ohlendorf; Ernst Julius Rohm; and many others of the inner circle, including, of course, Adolf Hitler himself.

In a series of highly readable essays, The Nazi Eliteexamines the personalities, histories, and philosophies of these men, dispels common stereotypes, and offers new perspectives. Composed by leading scholars in the U.S. and Europe, many of whom have written definitive full-length biographies on their subjects, these essays shed light on historical controversies, such as the role of modernization during the Third Reich and the basis of Hitler's power as dictator.

The Nazi Elite is illuminating reading for every observer of extremist politics and for anyone interested in the history of our century.

Examines a controversial period of German history - from the Weimar Republic to Nazi Germany.

Examining the differences and similarities between the two regimes between 1919 and 1945, Panikos Panayi offers a thorough introduction to a very critical and popular period of modern history and this work contains research from some of the leading historians of Germany. It is comprehensive in scope, exploring the economic, social, political and diplomatic history of Germany during the period after the First World War and the Third Reich.

H. W. Koch, himself a former Hitler Youth brings a unique sensitivity and perspective to the history of one of the most fascinating vehicles for Nazi thought and propaganda. He traces the Hitler Youth movement from its antecedents in nineteenth-century German romanticism and pre-1914 youth culture, through the World War I radicaliztion of German youth, to its ultimate exploitation by the Nazi party.

December 7, 1941, is one of those days engraved in the twentieth century memory. It is a landmark day, along with Armistice Day in 1918, the stock market crash in 1929, and the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This book is about ordinary people on that extraordinary day. To a large extent, this book is by the people who remember that day because they have been permitted to tell their own stories in their own words. The book chooses representative stories from the entire country and concentrates on the stories of two destroyers, the USS Ward and the USS Henley, which were involved in the attack.

This book, like all good history, reminds us of the changes that have come since World War II. There has been an overall change in attitudes, especially with the dramatic changes in Europe and the economic dominance of Japan. Much of what we see now relates directly to World War II and the way America and its allies conducted themselves when the war ended. It was the last war which had virtually no gray areas--Germany, Japan, and Italy were the bad guys, and America and its allies were the good guys. It truly was that simple for us before and during World War II. Nothing has been that simple since the fateful day that brought America into the most catastrophic conflict in history.

From the late nineteenth century through the post-Holocaust era, the world was divided between countries that tried to expel their Jewish populations and those that refused to let them in. The plight of these traumatized refugees inspired numerous proposals for Jewish states. Jews and Christians, authors and adventurers, politicians and playwrights, and rabbis and revolutionaries all worked to carve out autonomous Jewish territories in remote and often hostile locations across the globe. The would-be founding fathers of these imaginary Zions dispatched scientific expeditions to far-flung regions and filed reports on the dream states they planned to create. But only Israel emerged from dream to reality. Israel's successful foundation has long obscured the fact that eminent Jewish figures, including Zionism's prophet, Theodor Herzl, seriously considered establishing enclaves beyond the Middle East. In the Shadow of Zion brings to life the amazing true stories of six exotic visions of a Jewish national home outside of the biblical land of Israel. It is the only book to detail the connections between these schemes, which in turn explain the trajectory of modern Zionism. A gripping narrative drawn from archives the world over, In the Shadow of Zion recovers the mostly forgotten history of the Jewish territorialist movement, and the stories of the fascinating but now obscure figures who championed it. Provocative, thoroughly researched, and written to appeal to a broad audience, In the Shadow of Zion offers a timely perspective on Jewish power and powerlessness. Visit the author's website: http://www.adamrovner.com/.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

"Besides writing an important history, Horne adds to our understanding of the evolution of white supremacy."
--"Political Affairs"

"This is a challenging story, known to specialists but worth retelling from a fresh perspecctive."
--" Library Journal"

"New studies of World War II and the Pacific War should be conducted with an aim to learn from the forgotten people- the 'colored' people- in Asia and the Pacific. Horne's book provides a valuable suggestion towards that lesson."
--"Diplomatic History"

"The strength of this book is that it leaves no claim unsubstantiated, and that it does not paint a picture in black and white. Horne does note vade the many contradictions that race inserted into the complexities of the war, but tackles them with analytic clarity."
--"Asia Views"

aHorneas analysis of the race problem and its role in World War II is both brilliant and convincing.a --Virginia Review of Asian Studies

aThis ambitious, transnational study makes a valuable and proactive contribution to the growing literature devoted to the racial aspects of the Pacific War.a
--Pacific Historical Review

aThis book is full of interesting information like this about deep and wide repercussions of Japanas racial stance...a
--Journal of Imperial Commonwealth History.

Japan's lightning march across Asia during World War II was swift and brutal. Nation after nation fell to Japanese soldiers. How were the Japanese able to justify their occupation of so many Asian nations? And how did they find supporters in countries they subdued and exploited? Race War! delves into submerged and forgotten history toreveal how European racism and colonialism were deftly exploited by the Japanese to create allies among formerly colonized people of color. Through interviews and original archival research on five continents, Gerald Horne shows how race played a key--and hitherto ignored--role in each phase of the war.

During the conflict, the Japanese turned white racism on its head portraying the war as a defense against white domination in the Pacific. We learn about the "reverse racial hierarchy" practiced by the Japanese internment camps, in which whites were placed at the bottom of the totem pole, under the supervision of Chinese, Korean, and Indian guards--an embarrassing example of racial payback that was downplayed by the defeated Japanese and the humiliated Europeans and Euro-Americans.

Focusing on the microcosmic example of Hong Kong but ranging from colonial India to New Zealand and the shores of the U.S., Gerald Horne "radically retells" the story of the war. From racist U.S. propaganda to Black Nationalist open support of Imperial Japan, information about the effect of race on U.S. and British policy is revealed for the first time. This revisionist account of the war draws connections between General Tojo, Malaysian freedom fighters, and Elijah Muhammed of the Nation of Islam and shows how white racism encouraged and enabled Japanese imperialism. In sum, Horne demonstrates that the retreat of white supremacy was not only driven by the impact of the Cold War and the energized militancy of Africans and African-Americans but by the impact of the Pacific War as well, as a chastened U.S. and U.K. moved vigorously after this conflict to remove the conditions that made Japan's successpossible.

During World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower became convinced that the era of separate land, sea, and air operations was over and that future military operations would involve all three elements acting in concert. He foresaw that, once peace had been restored, the waste and duplication of effort which characterized America's military operations during the war would not be tolerated by an economy-minded Congress. A fiscal conservative, Eisenhower saw national security as dependent upon maintaining a healthy economy and a strong military. His goal, therefore, was the achievement of an efficient, properly balanced military establishment within the context of a healthy economy through the unification of the services into a single Cabinet level department.

As Army Chief of Staff, adviser to Secretaries of National Defense James Forrestal and Louis Johnson, and then as president, Eisenhower was a leader in the effort to achieve unification. The final result of these efforts, the Military Reorganization Act of 1958, did not encompass all of the changes that Eisenhower originally sought. However, he had been instrumental in transforming the unorganized military establishment of pre-war America into a highly centralized organization led by a powerful secretary of defense. This structure would remain unchanged for twenty-eight years.

British Literature of the Blitz interrogates the patriotic, utopian ideal of the People's War by analyzing conflicted representations of class and gender in literature and film. Its subtitle - Fighting the People's War - describes how British citizens both united to fight Nazi Germany and questioned the nationalist ideology binding them together.

The Second World War was a period which witnessed struggles for the definition of appropriate feminine identities and behavior. However, of the are myths and silences surrounding women's contribution to the war, the heroic myths of the War are male. Women's own accounts show how they consciously negotiated their lives through that fractured gendered time and space.War conditions threatened existing gendered social relations and so, throughout the war, 'woman' was the target of regulation and surveillance. Women's presence in the public spheres of industry, the services and other masculine spaces led to their sexuality becoming a contentious issue. Women's morals were increasingly related to Brtish male morale.How far the disruptions of war time challenge perceptions of feminine behavior remains controversial. Gender relations, feminine identity and the discourses constructing sexuality could have been threatened as the gendered nature of the public and private spheres and time and space were thorown into relief during the war.

Jean Moulin is a universally recognized French hero, celebrated as the delegate of General de Gaulle to Nazi-occupied France in 1942-43 and founder of the National Resistance Council in May 1943. He is known for defiance of the German invaders in June 1940 and for his death in the hands of Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie in July 1943. This book is the first fully-documented account in English of his republican background, his resistance activities, and his death and reputation.

This is the first book (in either English or French) to offer readers an overview of women's experience of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath in France. It examines objectively the part that women played in both collaboration and resistance, synthesising much recent scholarship on the subject in French and English, and drawing on the author's own extensive research (including oral testimony) in Toulouse, Paris, and West Brittany. The findings are complex, and the immensely varied testimony challenges easy generalisation. This will be relevant for courses on French studies, French and European history and Women's studies.

This is the inspiring and charming true story of one of the Second World War's most unusual combatants - a 500-pound cigarettesmoking, beer-drinking brown bear. Originally adopted as a mascot by the Polish Army in Iran, Wojtek soon took on a more practical role, carrying heavy mortar rounds for the troops and going on to play his part as a fully enlisted 'soldier' with his own rank and number during the Italian campaign. After the war, Wojtek, along with some of his Polish compatriots from II Corps, came to Berwickshire, where he became a significant member of the local community before subsequently moving to Edinburgh Zoo. Wojtek's retirement was far from quiet: a potent symbol of freedom and solidarity for Poles around the world, he attracted a huge amount of media interest that shows no sign of abating almost 50 years after his death.