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Bibliographical Essay
World War II caused greater
destruction than any other war in history. The war took the lives
of about 17 million soldiers and an even greater number of civilians,
who died as a result of bombings, starvation, and deliberate
campaigns of mass murder. The war also ushered in the atomic
age and was quickly followed by the collapse of the wartime alliance
between the United States and the Soviet Union and the beginning
of the Cold War.
World War I created the conditions
that led to World War II. The peace settlement ending the war,
which stripped the Central Powers of territory and arms and required
them to pay reparations, left lasting bitterness in Germany,
Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey. The peace treaty also
disappointed two of the victors, Italy and Japan. In addition,
the war severely disrupted Europe's economies and helped set
the stage for the Great Depression of the 1930s.
General histories of the war,
which examine the war's origins, military history, and consequences,
include John Keegan, The Second World War (1989); C.L.
Sulzberger and Stephen E. Ambrose, American Heritage New History
of World War II (1997); and Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World
at Arms: A Global History of World War II (1994). Valuable
reference works include I.C.B. Dear and M.R.D. Foot, eds., The
Oxford Companion to the Second World War (1995); John Ellis,
World War II: A Statistical Survey (1993); and John Keegan,
ed., The Times Atlas to the Second World War (1989). To
understand the war's outcome, see Richared Overy, Why the
Allies Won (1995).
The most thorough and balanced
recent history of the American role in World War II is David
M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression
and War, 1929-1945 (1999), which examines the causes of U.S.
involvement in the conflict, wartime diplomacy, military strategy,
and the war's economic and social implications.
The question of how Japan was
able to carry out its successful surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
is thoroughly examined in Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept:
The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (1982). The war's European
theater is discussed in Stephen L. McFarland and Wesley Phillips
Newton, To Command the Sky: The Battle for Air Superiority
Over German, 1942-1944 (1991); Nathan Miller, War at Sea:
A Naval History of World War II (1995); and James Polmar
and T.B. Allen, World War II (1996). Soldiers' wartime
experiences are examined in Gerald F. Linderman, The World
Within War: America's Combat Experience in World War II (1997).
On the Pacific War, see John Dower, War Without Mercy: Race
and Power in the Pacific War (1986), Akira Iriye, Power
and Culture: The Japanese-American War, 1941-1945 (1981),
and Ronald Spector, Eagle Against the Sun (1985)
World War II transformed the
American homefront. It jump-started the economy; ended Depression-era
unemployment, relocated Americans in unprecedented numbers, and
permanently altered the status of women, adolescents, and racial
minorities in American life. The war's impact on the homefront
is analyzed in William L. O'Neill, A Democracy at War: America's
Fight at Home and Abroad in World War II (1993). Oral histories
from the war years can be found in Studs Terkel, The Good
War (1984).
World War II had a dramatic
impact on women's lives. The most visible change involved the
appearance of large numbers of women in uniform, as more than
250,000 women joined the WACs, the Army Nurses Corps, the WAVES,
and the Navy Nurses Corps. The war also challenged the conventional
image of female behavior, as "Rosie the Riveter" became
the popular symbol of women who worked in defense industries.
Wartime transformations in women's lives are examined in Susan
M. Hartmann, The Homefront and Beyond: Women in the 1940s
(1982) and D'Ann Campbell, Women at War with America: Private
Lives in a Patriotic Era (1984).
World War II affected children
and adolescents no less than women. In fact, the word "teenager"
first appeared during the war. William M. Tuttle, Jr., Daddy's
Gone to War: The Second World War in the Lives of America's Children
(1993) traces the changes in young peoples' lives.
During World War II, African
Americans waged battles on two fronts. They helped the country
win the war overseas and pressed for equal rights at home. This
dual struggle for victory against fascism and discrimination,
known as the "Double V" campaign, is examined in Neil
Wynn, The Afro-American and the Second World War (1976).
The internment of 112,000 mainland
Japanese Americans, one of the most shameful chapters in American
history, is examined in Peter Irons, Justice at War: The Story
of the Japanese Internment Cases (1983). A 1942 government
report on the Pearl Harbor attack, written by Supreme Court Justice
Owen J. Roberts, which claimed without supporting evidence that
the Japanese had received support from some Japanese Americans,
helped to create a climate of opinion that led to internment.
World War II marked the dawn
of the atomic age. The development of nuclear weapons is thoroughly
examined in Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb
(1986). The decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan remains
one of the most controversial decisions in military history.
Martin Sherwin, A World Destroyed: The Atomic Bomb and the
Grand Alliance (1975) analyzes the factors that went into
this decision.
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