A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II

Gerhard L. Weinberg

Who started the Second World War, and how did separate fights in Europe and Asia grow into one war that probably cost sixty million lives?

At a glance

You will be able to say who started the Second World War and on what evidence
You will be able to answer the claim that Germany invaded the Soviet Union only to head off a Soviet attack
You will know the scale of the war's deaths, and that civilians, not soldiers, made up most of them

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
INTRODUCTION
1. From one war to another
2. From the German and Soviet invasions of Poland to the German attack in the West, September 1, 1939 to May 10, 1940
3. The world turned upside down
4. The expanding conflict, 1940–1941
5. The Eastern Front and a changing war, June to December, 1941
6. Halting the Japanese advance, halting the German advance; keeping them apart and shifting the balance: December 1941 to November 1942
7. The war at sea, 1942–1944, and the blockade
8. The war in Europe and North Africa 1942–1943: to and from Stalingrad; to and from Tunis
9. The home front
10. Means of warfare: old and new
11. From the spring of 1943 to summer 1944
12. The assault on Germany from all sides
13. Tensions in both alliances
14. The halt on the European fronts
15. The final assault on Germany
16. The war in the Pacific: from Leyte to the Missouri
Conclusions: the cost and impact of war
BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY