The Second World War

The Second World War ended the Nazi domination of Europe and Japanese aggression in the Asian Pacific but created two superpowers and another world crisis, the recently concluded Cold War. This new study provides a fresh assessment of the entire course of World War II, covering both the European and the Asian Pacific conflicts. The author argues that the combination of a hard-won victory and the onset of the Cold War provided a frozen perspective of "winners" history which has endured until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. He reassesses the war, providing an invaluable introduction to the many debates among historians as to its origins, its expansion, its conduct, and its consequences.