World War II (1931-1945)
“The Second World War presented a mirror to the human condition which blinded anyone who looked into it.” — Norman Mailer, “The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster” (1957)
Of the endless ocean of books on the Second World War, we have dozens and dozens of new and carefully chosen titles. I define it as beginning with the Japanese Empire’s invasion of Manchuria and ending with not only V-E and V-J Days but also the immediate crises of displaced people, the Soviet Union’s creation of the Iron Curtain, and the growing revelations of the extent of the Holocaust.
In significant ways the Second World War was the defining crucible of the 20th Century. The First World War was prelude, the legacy of the 19th Century’s imperialism, and the Cold War was the sequel. Of the making of books about it there is no end — but the persistence of good research and good writing, and good publication underscores the war’s centrality of the world we live in today and the world our descendents will live in for the foreseeable future.
World War II Memories: The Great Crusade in Europe
World War II Memories: The Great Crusade in Europe
You are about to embark on a great crusade…
A paratrooper is left for dead among dying enemy soldiers. A medic survives captivity in Nazi Germany only to be liberated by the Russians. A recon scout draws gunfire to save Is trapped on the Seigfried Line. In this salute to a fading generation, award-winning journalist Joseph David Cress presents a collection of memories from World War II veternas who marched across Europe into the heart of Hitler’s Third Reich.