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(More customer reviews)Evan Mawdsley, Professor of International History at Glasgow University, has produced a fine study of the grand strategy of World War II. He starts his account in 1937, when Japan attacked China. He analyses the economies, politics and strategies of all the major combatant powers.
He points out, "In 1939 - as in 1914 - the British Empire was the largest political entity on the planet. It had a population of some 530 million and an area of 13 million square miles."
He pays special attention to the Soviet Union's huge contribution to the victory over Nazism, facing and defeating 80 per cent of Hitler's divisions. He refutes many myths about the Soviet war effort.
For example, he writes, "It is unfair, however, to charge Stalin and his government with not preparing the USSR for war." He observes that the weather was not the basic reason for the Moscow turnaround: Soviet reserves and resistance were the critical factors. And he notes, "Stalin also pulled off an industrial miracle, creating an industrial base from which Russia could prepare in the pre-war year, and re-equip after the disasters of 1941."
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This is a magisterial new global history of World War II. Beginning in 1937 with the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Evan Mawdsley shows how the origins of World War II lay in a conflict between the old international order and the new and then traces the globalisation of the conflict as it swept through Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. His primary focus is on the war's military and strategic history though he also examines the political, economic, ideological, and cultural factors which influenced the course of events.The war's consequences are examined too, not only in terms of the defeat of the Axis but also the break-up of colonial empires and the beginning of the Cold War. Accessibly written and well-illustrated with maps and photographs, this compelling new account also includes short studies of the key figures, events and battles that shaped the war.
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