Books in the Societies at War series

This is the first study of the aims that motivated the major powers -- the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany and Japan -- to fight in the Second World War.

This book fills a gap in the existing literature on the Second World War by covering the range of challenges, threats, issues, dilemmas, and changes faced and dealt with by Sweden during the conflict. Interest in Sweden's wartime experiences has increased due to its post-war profile as a neutral that both allowed German troops to transit through its territory and also carried on trading with the Nazi regime during the holocaust years. Many misconceptions and false impressions have arisen and persisted as a result of deliberate misinformation and concealment by all sides during that time. Readers of this book will gain a fresh, broad view of the period, personalities and problems from a Swedish orientation.

This book examines in depth for the first time the origins, development, and reception of the major dramatic screen representations of 'The Few' in the Battle of Britain produced over the past seventy years.

For Britain the Second World War exists in popular memory as a time of heroic sacrifice, survival and ultimate victory over Fascism. In the Irish state the years 1939-1945 are still remembered simply as 'the Emergency'. Eire was one of many small states which in 1939 chose not to stay out of the war but one of the few able to maintain its non-belligerency as a policy.How much this owed to Britain's military resolve or to the political skills of Eamon de Valera is a key question which this new book will explore. It will also examine the tensions Eire's policy created in its relations with Winston Churchill and with the United States. The author also explores propaganda, censorship and Irish state security and the degree to which it involves secret co-operation with Britain. Disturbing issues are also raised like the IRA's relationship to Nazi Germany and ambivalent Irish attitudes to the Holocaust.Drawing upon both published and unpublished sources, this book illustrates the war's impact on people on both sides of the border and shows how it failed to resolve sectarian problems on Northern Ireland while raising higher the barriers of misunderstanding between it and the Irish state across its border.

Introducing the subject of wartime destruction of architecture and historic monuments, Nicola Lambourne compares the damage inflicted upon Germany, Britain and France and considers the use and abuse of this type of destruction in the lowering of morale and for propaganda purposes.