World War II in Europe: A Concise History - Softcover

Perry, Marvin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1111836523 ISBN 13: 9781111836528

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 2012

Synopsis

WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE: A CONCISE HISTORY offers readers an engaging, clear, and comprehensive overview of the war that includes all of the key concepts, recent scholarship, and, where applicable, conflicting interpretations, while avoiding the complex data and schemata that tend to overwhelm non-specialists. Special attention is given to the human experience during the war, including extensive coverage of the Holocaust, and numerous quotations from relevant primary sources are integrated throughout the narrative, bringing the events to life. The text also covers the war's lasting effects on European history as well as population transfers, the treatment of collaborators and war criminals, the ordeal of Jewish survivors, changing German responses to the Nazi era, the emergence of the Cold War, and steps toward European integration.

About this title

About the Author

Marvin Perry, now retired, taught history at Baruch College, City University of New York. He has published several successful Cengage Learning texts, including WESTERN CIVILIZATION: IDEAS, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY (senior author and general editor); WESTERN CIVILIZATION: A BRIEF HISTORY; the leading Western Civilization reader, SOURCES OF THE WESTERN TRADITION; AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE; SOURCES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY SINCE 1900 (senior editor); HUMANITIES IN THE WESTERN TRADITION (senior author and general editor); and WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE: A CONCISE HISTORY. His scholarly work includes ARNOLD TOYNBEE AND THE WESTERN TRADITION (1996); ANTISEMITISM: MYTH AND HATE FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT (coauthor, 2002); ANTISEMITIC MYTHS: A HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ANTHOLOGY (coeditor, 2008); and THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM: AN ANTHOLOGY (coeditor, 2008). Dr. Perry's scholarly work focuses on the history of ideas.

Review

"The quotes from the primary sources are informative at a level that secondary narrative and analysis cannot provide. They bring one face to face with the suffering and inhumanity, and occasional humanity, of those experiencing these events. Most students would undoubtedly cite these quotes as among the most interesting aspects of the book."

"I would have no trouble whatsoever in teaching with this text. It addresses the important topics and provides an excellent overview of the war. There are areas which do not appear in other brief histories, i.e., the war against the Jews, the Allies, and the controversies generated by the action (or inaction) of various groups."

"Perry (Baruch College, City U. of New York) has done a superb job of condensing the immensely complicated events of the Second World War into a short, readable narrative, in part through a long focus that extends from the rise of Hitler through the aftermath of the war and its impact on European thought, politics, and culture. The Holocaust is treated as a separate 'war' within Hitler's many wars, with discussion of all the elements of how the extermination was carried out, the European attitudes towards Jews, and the ideology of National Socialism, demonstrating the historical context that allowed Hitler's ideas to prevail. The separate campaigns of the war are described concisely, with sections that address related issues, including later interpretations of each campaign's effect on the overall war. Each chapter concludes with a chronology summarizing the events described."

Edition details

• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1111836523
• ISBN 13: 9781111836528
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352