The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 3, Total War: Economy, Society and Culture Total War: Economy, Society and Culture

The conflict that ended in 1945 is often described as a 'total war', unprecedented in both scale and character. Volume 3 of The Cambridge History of the Second World War adopts a transnational approach to offer a comprehensive and global analysis of the war as an economic, social and cultural event. Across twenty-eight chapters and four key parts, the volume addresses complex themes such as the political economy of industrial war, the social practices of war, the moral economy of war and peace and the repercussions of catastrophic destruction. A team of nearly thirty leading historians together show how entire nations mobilized their economies and populations in the face of unimaginable violence, and how they dealt with the subsequent losses that followed. The volume concludes by considering the lasting impact of the conflict and the memory of war across different cultures of commemoration.

Introduction to Volume 3 Michael Geyer and Adam Tooze; Part I. Political Economy: Introduction to Part I Michael Geyer and Adam Tooze; 1. The economics of the war with Germany Adam Tooze and Jamie Martin; 2. Finance for war in Asia and its aftermath Greg Huff; 3. War of the factories Jeff Fear; 4. Controlling resources: coal, iron-ore and oil in the Second World War David Edgerton; 5. The human fuel: food as global commodity and local scarcity Lizzie Collingham; 6. Knowledge economies Cathryn Carson; 7. Seaborne transport Michael Miller; Part II. The Social Practice of Total War, 1939–1945: Introduction to Part II Michael Geyer and Adam Tooze; 8. Death and survival in the Second World War Richard Bessel; 9. Battles for morale: an entangled history of total war in Europe, 1939–1945 Jochen Hellbeck; 10. The war of the cities: industrial labouring forces Rüdiger Hachtman; 11. The war of the villages: the interwar agrarian crisis and the Second World War Adam Tooze; 12. Hors de combat: mobilization and immobilization in total war Geoffrey Cocks; 13. Environments, states and societies at war Christopher Pearson; Part III. The Moral Economy of War: Introduction to Part III Michael Geyer and Adam Tooze; 14. Just and unjust wars: military – civil society – states Michael Geyer; 15. Wars of displacement: exile and uprooting in the 1940s Yasmin Khan; 16. Sexuality and sexual violence Sabine Frühstück; 17. A war for liberty: the law of conscientious objection in the Second World War Jeremy Kessler; 18. Bringing the dogs of war to heel: pacifism in the Second World War Devin Pendas; 19. Humanitarian politics and governance: international responses to the civilian toll in the Second World War Stephen Porter; Part IV. Illusive Peace: From War to Cold War: Introduction to Part IV Michael Geyer and Adam Tooze; 20. The rise and fall of central planning David Engerman; 21. Two types of new deal. The Second World War and the renegotiation of the social contract in Britain, Europe and America Timothy B. Smith; 22. Nationalism, decolonization, geopolitics and the Asian postwar Rana Mitter; 23. Making peace as a project of moral reconstruction Mark Bradley; Part V. In the Aftermath of Catastrophic Destruction: Introduction to Part V Michael Geyer and Adam Tooze; 24. Interpretations of catastrophe Peter Gordon; 25. The ghosts of war Monica Black; 26. Popular memory, popular culture: the war in the postwar world Lucy Noakes; 27. The Second World War in global memory space Jie-Hyun Lim; 28. Landscapes of destruction: capturing images and creating memory through photography Dorothee Brantz; Bibliographical essay; Index.

Michael Geyer is Samuel N. Harper Professor of German and European History in the Department of History at the University of Chicago. His recent publications include the edited volume Beyond Totalitarianism: Stalinism and Nazism Compared.
Adam Tooze is Professor of Modern German History at Yale University. His published works include Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, and The Deluge: The Great War and the Remaking of Global Order, 1916–1931.