Books in the Counterfire series

The Second World War casts a long shadow, portrayed as a necessary and paradigmatic war that defeated fascism. During recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, US presidents and British prime ministers have tried to claim they were following in the footsteps of Winston Churchill by standing up to dictators. *BR**BR*In The Second World War Chris Bambery tests this position in a thorough account of the war and demonstrates why it continues to dominate TV history channels and school history books.*BR**BR*Arguing that the conflict was as much about a division of the world between the great powers as it was as a rising of ordinary people against fascism, he offers a nuanced and radical analysis that sets the book apart from conventional histories of the war.

This magisterial analysis of human history - from 'Lucy', the first hominid, to the current Great Recession - combines the insights of earlier generations of Marxist historians with radical new ideas about the historical process.*BR**BR*Reading history against the grain, Neil Faulkner reveals that what happened in the past was not predetermined. Choices were frequent and numerous. Different outcomes - liberation or barbarism - were often possible. Rejecting the top-down approach of conventional history, Faulkner contends that it is the mass action of ordinary people that drives great events.*BR**BR*At the beginning of the 21st century - with economic disaster, war, climate catastrophe and deep class divisions - humans face perhaps the greatest crisis in the long history of our species. The lesson of A Marxist History of the World is that, if we created our past, we can also create a better future.