The Great World War 1914–45: v. 2 (The Great World War, 1914-1945) - Hardcover

How our World was forged in battle.

Winners and Losers reveals the truly global impact of the 1914-18 and 1939-45 conflicts and their enduring legacy in the modern world. Boundaries were re-drawn, not just on the political map, but socially too: the wars brought women into the factories and even the frontline. Newly independent nations established themselves: the wars were defining moments for Australia, Canada and New Zealand. African and Asian troops fought for the French and British Empires with very different experiences. Modern Russia has a life expectancy no greater than that achieved by 1914: perhaps no other country is still so deeply in the shadow of the Great World War.

'WHO WON? WHO LOST?
The peoples' Experience of war 1914-45'

Our world was shaped by war. Old empires fell but new ones emerged. Settlements made in 1945 have now unravelled across Eastern Europe and attitudes to war itself have changed. Post war assumptions as to who had won and who had lost are open to question. In this second volume of 'The Great World War 1914-45', historians from all over the world reveal the very different experiences of the worlds peoples.

The experiences of different nationalities, sexes and age-groups shaped our world today. The war began in the Balkans and ended with the imposition of a Yugoslav state never likely to survive the demise of its creator. Australia, New Zealand and Canada secured control of the own armed forces and independent political futures. The War destroyed most European colonial empires and fatally undermined those that tottered into the post-war world.

Peoples' experience was not confined to events on the battlefronts or the bombing campaigns or guerrilla wars conducted behind them. An international team of authors investigate opposition to war, the ethics of 20th century combat, propaganda, popular culture and how war has been treated in fiction and visual art. This is the most wide-ranging and globally inclusive study of 20th century conflict.