English Diary 2026
0823 World War II: A Very Short Introduction presents the war as a genuinely global conflict rather than merely a confrontation between Germany and Britain or between Japan and the United States. The book begins with the interwar period, showing how the settlement after World War I gradually became untenable, while economic turmoil, aggressive nationalism, and the rise of Hitler undermined the international order. Meanwhile, Japan had already been expanding its war in China. Its conflict with the Western powers eventually culminated in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the war. At this point, previously separate conflicts in Europe and Asia became inextricably intertwined as one global war. By 1945, Germany and Japan had been defeated, but victory came at an exorbitant human cost. Around sixty million people had died, most of them civilians, and vast areas of Europe and Asia had been devastated. The conflict permanently transformed international politic...