Scorched Earth
A radical new history of history’s most brutal struggle for survival between imperial powers.
In popular memory, World War II was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, and democratic order over the age empires. Scorched Earth dispatches the myth of World War II as a ‘good’ war. Instead, it reveals the conflict as a massive battle beset by vicious racial atrocities, fought between rival empires across huge stretches of Asia and Europe. The war was sparked by German and Japanese invasions that threatened the old powers’ dominance, not by Allied opposition to fascism. The Allies achieved victory not through pluck and democratic idealism but through savage firebombing raids on civilian targets and the slaughter of millions of Soviet soldiers. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as hyper-militarized new imperial powers, each laying claim to former Axis holdings across the globe before turning on one another and triggering a new forever war.
Dramatically rendered and persuasively argued, Scorched Earth shows that World War II marked the culmination of centuries of colonial violence and ushered in a new era of imperial struggle.
In popular memory, World War II was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, and democratic order over the age empires. Scorched Earth dispatches the myth of World War II as a ‘good’ war. Instead, it reveals the conflict as a massive battle beset by vicious racial atrocities, fought between rival empires across huge stretches of Asia and Europe. The war was sparked by German and Japanese invasions that threatened the old powers’ dominance, not by Allied opposition to fascism. The Allies achieved victory not through pluck and democratic idealism but through savage firebombing raids on civilian targets and the slaughter of millions of Soviet soldiers. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as hyper-militarized new imperial powers, each laying claim to former Axis holdings across the globe before turning on one another and triggering a new forever war.
Dramatically rendered and persuasively argued, Scorched Earth shows that World War II marked the culmination of centuries of colonial violence and ushered in a new era of imperial struggle.
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Reviews
While historians have long identified World War II as a seminal influence on our contemporary era, none have effectively argued that colonialism in its varied versions was its ultimate legacy-until now. In previous work, Chamberlin contested Cold War realism; likewise, here he upends common assumptions about the Good War. He demythologizes in a way that eloquently covers this epic conflict in all its details-experts and war buffs will find a lot of battle descriptions that are fresh here-while provoking us to rethink our understanding of history itself. Truly a tour de force!
A well written, balanced, and provocative account of the twentieth century's greatest and most destructive war. Paul Thomas Chamberlin covers all the major theaters of the war, smoothly integrating political and military developments. The author's unorthodox interpretation of the Second World War will challenge historians to reexamine long-standing assumptions and beliefs about the origins and nature of this critical conflict
What more is there left to say about World War II? A lot, it turns out, as Paul Chamberlin shows in his brilliant, panoramic new history of the most colossal, catastrophic war in human history. New insights leap from every page, introducing even seasoned readers to fresh perspectives on the war . . . Chamberlin provides a breathtakingly new interpretation of World War II. A truly remarkable book
In a sweeping and vivid narrative, Scorched Earth challenges us to abandon the simplistic hero myths that have blinded us to World War II's devastating and continuing impact on our own time
The most up-to-date and enlightening global history of World War II. Paul Thomas Chamberlin's briskly written Scorched Earth is an unflinching account of the role played by racism and colonial aspirations in the conflict's origins, brutal unfolding, and less than heroic outcomes
A dauntingly ambitious reinterpretation of the Second World War. In coldly lucid prose, it challenges the standard - and comforting - European and American clichés about the war's meaning. Its sweeping vision will ensure that it will be devoured by students of post-1945 world history
Powerful, absorbing and endlessly thought-provoking. The horrors of WWII are re-interpreted by Professor Chamberlin as an apocalyptic death struggle of colonial expansion, a dying old order giving way to a new era of imperialism. And in today's world, where those grinding tectonic plates of empire threaten fresh earthquakes, this book resonates with warning echoes