What They Didn't Teach You About World War II

The author of the acclaimed What They Didn't Teach You series tackles World War II, a defining moment in the history of the world. Yet, for many of the Baby Boom generation, it is largely a mystery; too early and too late, it is not quite far enough in the past to be "real" history, and not quite recent enough to be memory. Allies = good guys. Axis = bad guys. Hitler = very bad guy. The United States A-bombed Japan. End of story? Hardly.This is history unlike any you were taught: there is no effort to teach you specific battles and there are no maps with bright blue arrows (usually the good guys) circling and jabbing at bright red arrows (usually the bad guys). This is the human side of the war telling of those who marched to recruiting stations, and others who stood in lines to buy meat for their tables and gasoline for their rusting automobiles, both heavily rationed commodities. This is the story of the vitality and resilience of human beings, more than of the violence of battle.