Rethinking the Second World War
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Did build up to World War Two only begin in the 20th century, or was the century of violent imperial expansion before 1939 the ultimate cause of one of the deadliest conflicts marked in modern history? In this episode James is joined by historian and author Richard Overy to discuss his fresh perspective of World War Two. In his new book 'Blood and Ruins The Great Imperial War' - Richard argues that World War Two should be seen as the final point of nearly a century of imperial expansion across the globe. Together he and James discuss the lesser known imperialistic views of major players in the Second World War, the origins and consequences of imperialistic views, and why this new outlook is important in shaping our understanding of one of the deadliest conflicts in history.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone welcome back to warfare. Now as an air power historian |
| 0:10.4 | myself it is very exciting to have Professor Richard Overy on the |
| 0:15.2 | podcast. Richard is one of the greatest historians of the Second World War, and |
| 0:19.2 | his book, The Bombing War, I'd say, is probably the most important book published on the topic in recent years. |
| 0:25.6 | In fact, one thing I've always admired about Richer's work is his ability to broaden and widen |
| 0:30.8 | our understanding of the Second World War in terms of both its origins, its dates, and its |
| 0:37.0 | geography where it was fought around the world. |
| 0:40.0 | And that's exactly what we're going to be discussing today. |
| 0:42.7 | Richard's latest book, Blood and Ruin, |
| 0:45.1 | The Great Imperial War, 1931 to 1945, |
| 0:50.2 | recast the way in which we view the Second World War, and he argues that we should view it as a broader end to a violent century, a century defined by global imperial expansion. |
| 1:03.6 | So we don't just talk about Japan and Germany and Italy, but we talk about Britain and |
| 1:09.5 | France and Belgium and Holland. |
| 1:12.3 | Now remember, you can get in contact with us directly with any |
| 1:15.2 | ideas you have or your own family histories on warfare at historyhit.com. |
| 1:20.0 | You can also follow us on Twitter at History at |
| 1:25.0 | James Rogers History and now on Tik-Tock which is also at James |
| 1:29.6 | Rogers History. |
| 1:31.0 | But here is the ever excellent Richard O overy on the Great Imperial War. |
| 1:35.2 | Enjoy. Hi Richard, welcome to Warfare. How how you doing today okay thank you very much now |
| 1:56.9 | actually I'll talk about a little bit of my history you won't remember this |
| 2:00.1 | but I was a young upstart PhD and I met you at Tandhurst and you gave an excellent |
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