1942 When World War II engulfed the globe

This sweeping account from historian Fritzsche (Hitler's First Hundred Days) pinpoints 1942 as the year WWII became "the greatest cataclysm in human history," with the conflict touching the lives of half the globe's two billion inhabitants through displacement, interment, murder, and mobilization. The year opened with massive Japanese and German campaigns in the Pacific and Russia respectively--triumphs that proved ephemeral by year's end, when the Japanese were checked by the Americans at Midway and Guadalcanal, and the Germans by the Russians at Stalingrad. Fritzsche attributes this shift in fortunes to burgeoning Allied superiority in manpower and armaments, but also sees a change in the war's nature, from a coherent narrative of Axis advance and conquest to a shapeless metastasis of violence. Much of the book explores this rising tide of destruction, from the first British firebombing of a German city, Cologne, to the acceleration of the Holocaust as the Nazis established death camps in Poland. Fritzsche interprets this chaos as fitting within a globalized rubric of fanaticism and race war, in which vast, solidaristic national mobilizations entwined with hysterical animus against ethnic outsiders (not just on the Axis side--he cites the internment of Japanese Americans). Fritzsche's rich commentary blends political narratives with discussions of popular culture, from Nazi propaganda to Dr. Seuss's anti-Japanese political cartoons. The result is an elegant and expansive analysis of the cultural life of total war. (Sept.)

How global conflict made a world of outcasts. Churchill and Roosevelt had signed the Atlantic Charter in August 1941, promoting a robust defense for free trade and promising national self-determination. However, not all of the charter's consequences were intended. The more conventional aspects of this study focus on the three main theaters of war: El Alamein, Guadalcanal, and the Battle for Stalingrad--the latter accounting for 10% of all battlefield deaths during the entire war. The less conventional aspect leaves the exclusively military story not so much ignored as supplemented. Cultures that were previously almost unknown to each other fought side by side or clashed--often, both. With the exception of continental Europe, most action was overseas, with over 1 million men at sea. One sixth of the American population was mobilized, and in addition to producing munitions, battleships (one per week), and B-52s (one per hour), they changed the sheer speed and scale of warfare. The enormous shipyards in Richmond, California, drew migrants from the South, and with them, the lingering heritage of Jim Crow. Recruits needed dental care and education. Literacy rates were surprisingly low. "The war effortnationalized America's race problem," writes Fritzsche, a University of Illinois historian. The Japanese invasion of Singapore led to the collapse of Burma and added fuel to the "quit India" campaign. The British Empire, home to a quarter of the world's population, began to seem contingent rather than inevitable. Fritzsche tells of the effects of war in South Africa, the Philippines, and China. Along with India, China suffered famine as a result of prioritizing military rather than civilian provisioning. Back in Europe, those beneath the bombings were left homeless and destitute. Jews were evicted and deported. Mass labor shortages pressed occupied territories into slave labor, promoting increased resistance. Migration becomes the main thesis of the book. Certainties and political structures crumble, Fritzsche argues, when everyone is from somewhere else. An admirable and useful addition to the history of World War II. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.