"Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the
finest single-volume history of World War II. Richard Overy has given us
a powerful reminder of the horror of war and the threat posed by
dictators with dreams of empire." - The Wall Street Journal
A thought-provoking and original reassessment of World War II, from
Britain's leading military historian
A New York Times bestseller
Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins to recast the way in which
we view the Second World War and its origins and aftermath. As one of
Britain's most decorated and respected World War II historians, he
argues that this was the "last imperial war," with almost a century-long
lead-up of global imperial expansion, which reached its peak in the
territorial ambitions of Italy, Germany and Japan in the 1930s and early
1940s, before descending into the largest and costliest war in human
history and the end, after 1945, of all territorial empires.
Overy also argues for a more global perspective on the war, one that
looks broader than the typical focus on military conflict between the
Allied and Axis states. Above all, Overy explains the bitter cost for
those involved in fighting, and the exceptional level of crime and
atrocity that marked the war and its protracted aftermath--which
extended far beyond 1945.
Blood and Ruins is a masterpiece, a new and definitive look at the
ultimate struggle over the future of the global order, which will compel
us to view the war in novel and unfamiliar ways. Thought-provoking,
original and challenging, Blood and Ruins sets out to understand the war
anew.
