This is thinking in public, a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

front-line theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Moller, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

The 20th century is just behind us.

It is almost as if it is still here with us. Historical

perspectives on events so massive as the Second World War in the history of the

20th century are still issues that are well very close to our modern consciousness but essential to our

current understanding. That's the focus today for thinking in public. Dr Andrew Roberts,

Roberts, born in 1963, is a graduate of Cambridge University from which he received his doctor of philosophy.

Many Americans know him already by his writing. University from which he received his Doctor of Philosophy.

Many Americans know him already by his writings, and in the English-speaking world he is known

as one of the preeminent historians in terms of his writings, including most recently, the best-selling book, The Storm of War,

A New History, the Second World War.

Dr Andrew Roberts, welcome to Thinking in Public.

Thank you very much indeed.

You wrote this book, and it in some ways is a trajectory that can be noted in other of your writings.

You have arrived at the Second World War writing this particular book.

What led you to write this book at this time. What led you to write this book at this time?

Well, I've really been studying the Second World War for the last quarter of a century or so.

Back in the late 1980s, I started working on a book about Lord Halifax, Winston Churchill,

and Neville Chamberlain's Foreign Secretary.

And so off and on I've been writing about and thinking about this period for a long time decided really it was the

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