In this ambitious new book, Richard Overy seeks to reshape our understanding of the Second World War. It was, he says, a single global conflict that began not, as conventionally narrated, with the German invasion of Poland in 1939, but far earlier, with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Many previous histories of the war have treated the European and Asian theatres of conflict separately. In Total War (1972), Peter Calvocoressi and Guy Wint each looked at one of the two theatres. Gerhard L Weinberg’s A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (1994) made a valiant effort to fulfil the promise of its subtitle but focused above all on the conflict in Europe, incorporating Japan only because it was an “associate” of Hitler’s Germany. By contrast, Blood and Ruins integrates both aspects far more coherently into a single interpretative framework.
Overy manages to pull off this feat because he recasts the war as “the last imperial war”, fought not between rival nation states or ideologies but between global, multinational of the war have treated the European and Asian theatres of conflict separately. In Total War (1972), Peter Calvocoressi and Guy Wint each looked at one of the two theatres. Gerhard L Weinberg’s A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (1994) made a valiant effort to fulfil the promise of its subtitle but focused above all on the conflict in Europe, incorporating Japan only because it was an “associate” of Hitler’s Germany. By contrast, Blood and Ruins integrates both aspects far more coherently into a single interpretative framework.
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The King They Couldn't Kill -Want to know why Henry VII is remembered as an intensely suspicious king, wracked by paranoia? The answer, writes Nathen Amin, lies in his death-defying rise to power
Henry’s wary nature is typically attributed to his shaky claim to the throne. The first Tudor monarch was unable to escape the taunt that he was a usurper with no right to call himself king. In fact, his renowned paranoia was the inevitable consequence of a traumatic youth – a trait ingrained long before he harboured ambitions to wear a crown. If we delve deeper into Henry’s background, we can draw a fuller picture of one of our most circumspect of monarchs – one that might elicit sympathy for a long misunderstood king.
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Examining the reconnaissance photos, Behrendt was convinced that the Allies weren’t in any hurry. They were constructing some kind of pipeline towards the southern end of their line, probably to carry water, which was barely halfway completed. There were supply dumps appearing in the south as well – always a telltale clue about where an attack would come. True, a large number of trucks were parked at the northern end of the line, about 25 miles back from the front, but they hadn’t moved for weeks.
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