Rowman & Littlefield Publishers The World at War, 1914–1945

This text provides an innovative global military history that joins three periods-World War I, the interwar years, and World War II. Jeremy Black offers a comprehensive survey of both wars, comparing continuities and differences. He traces the causes of each war and assesses land, sea, and air warfare as separate dimensions. He argues that the unprecedented nature of the two wars owed much to the demographic and industrial strength of the states involved and their ability and determination to mobilize vast resources. Yet the demands of the world wars also posed major difficulties, not simply in sustaining the struggle but also in conceiving of practical strategies and operational methods in the heat and competition of ever-evolving conflict. In this process, resources, skills, leadership, morale, and alliance cohesion all proved significant. In addition to his military focus, Black considers other key dimensions of the conflicts, especially political and social influences and impacts. He thoroughly integrates the interwar years, tracing the significant continuities between the two world wars. He emphasizes how essential American financial, industrial, agricultural, and energy resources were to the Allies-both before and after the United States entered each war. Bringing the two world wars to life, Black sheds light not only on both as individual conflicts but also on the interwoven relationships between the two. Review [A] concise study from a master of his craft, able to convey the 'big picture' while delving as necessary down into the weeds. . . . Black's concluding chapter is a taut summary of this dreadful half-century.--The Journal Of Military History Jeremy Black's latest book, The World at War, 1914-1945, engages with recent formulations that treat the two World Wars as part of one unified historical dynamic. . . . The strength of the book lies in its challenge to see the period 1914-45 in ways different from how scholars and popular culture normally present it. . . . Whether or not the men of 1942 understood themselves as finishing the work of their fathers in 1915 may, as The World at War, 1914-1945 challenges us to consider, be the wrong question to ask. Instead readers might ask whether they understood the irony that their imperial service represented, in the wider scheme of history, a critical element in bringing about the end of empires.--Parameters: Us Army War College Quarterly This book provides the reader with an innovative global military history that joins three periods--World War I, the interwar years, and World War II. Professor Black offers a comprehensive survey of both wars, comparing continuities and differences. He traces the causes of each war and assesses land, sea, and air warfare as separate dimension in each period. A must read for anyone interested in this time period of military and indeed global history.--New Books Network What happened in the world of warfare between the opening guns of 'The Great War' and the end of a second world war? Jeremy Black shows that attempts to tie the conflicts too closely ignore the strategic dimensions that are at least as important as battle in understanding them. His narrative spans both wars and the years between, but Black chooses land, sea, and air warfare as his organizing principles, guiding the reader smoothly through each period's biggest lessons learned or ignored by contemporaries. His clarity and logic will be very helpful to students new to the complexity of the literature on this vital era. Black's postscript is a reminder to historians and educators overly willing to succumb to the convenient notion of 'The Long War' that so easily links 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. He calls that notion out for its Eurocentric frame, typical of the late twentieth century, asserting that we must view things quite differently as the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century approaches.--Theodore F. Cook, William Paterson Universit