Description
Book SynopsisAnalyses and explains developments of modern war. This book deals with three of the most important themes of historical studies: the way history is or ought to be written, the nature of dictatorships, and the nature of wars. It focuses on modern Europe, as well as on the First and Second World Wars and totalitarian dictatorships.
Trade Review‘In his introductory remarks Overy argues that it is the job of the historian to think freely and critically about the past. Most of the authors of the essays in this collection have done just that.' -- English Historical Review
Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. History, Dictatorships and War; Part I: The Way History is or Ought to be Written; 2. Mapping the Twentieth Century; 3. Writers on a Mission; 4. Regional History, Nazism and the Holocaust; 5. Defining 'Human Security': Roads to War and Peace; Part II: The Nature of Dictatorships; 6. Comparing Napoleon's Leadership Style with the Dictators of the 20th Century; 7. The Making of German Policy towards British POWs; 8. Comparing Nazi and Stalinist Rule in the Borderlands of Eastern Europe; Part III: War; 9. Air Power and War; 10. Why the Allies Won the Air War, 1939-1945; 11. What Sustained and Motivated RAF Bomber Command Aircrew in the Battle of Berlin? Contrasting Perspectives; 12. The British Army as a Social Institution 1939-45; 13. 'Oh, you can't help feeling for them'. The British security forces and the Jews in Palestine, 1945-1948.
