"Offering readers much more than a military history, this unparalleled collection of 58 state-of-the-field historiographic essays explores the widely varying contexts in which nations and transnational communities experienced World War II. In doing so, it provides insight into how the war linked nations, systems, and cultures, and sets the agenda for future research. A Companion to World War II introduces readers to the myriad factors influencing the war's developments, examining the various theatres of operation, the diplomacy, economics, intelligence, and home front experiences of a host of nations including major neutrals. The essays include topics as diverse as American anti-Semitism, women in wartime, French African soldiers, internal resistance in Nazi Germany, the war's impact on the struggle for independence in India, and postwar planning, among others. The collection identifies scholarly and official debates - in the English-speaking community as well as in other languages - about the course of the war through historiographic analysis by established and emerging experts in their fields. It represents a major new contribution to the academic literature on an event of unparalleled centrality in world history."--Jacket.

Vol. 1 : Part I : Roots of war : How a second world war happened -- The Versailles Peace Settlement and the collective security system -- The Great Depression -- Colonialism in Asia -- Visionaries of expansion -- Soviet planning for war, 1928-June 1941 ; Part II : Fighting the war : Japanese early attack -- War and empire: the transformation of Southern Asia -- CBI : a historiographical review -- The German assault, 1939-1941 -- Militaries compared : Wehrmacht and Red Army, 1941-1945 -- The bombers : the strategic bombing of Germany and Japan -- Scandinavian campaigns -- The naval war in the Mediterranean -- Ocean war -- Maritime war : combat, management, and memory -- The Middle East and World War II -- The Western Front, 1944-1945 -- Battle fronts and home fronts : the war in the east from Stalingrad to Berlin -- German defeat -- Southwest Pacific -- The military occupations of World War II : a historiography -- Ending the Pacific War : the new history ; Part III : Multinational and transnational zones of combat : strategy : Axis coalition building -- Strategies, commands, and tactics, 1939-1941 -- British and American strategic planning -- Wartime conferences -- The US war against Japan : a transnational perspective -- World War II and communication technologies -- Of spies and stratagems -- French African soldiers in World War II -- Scientists and nuclear weapons in World War II : the background, the experience, and the sometimes contested meanings and analyses -- Civilians in the combat zone : Anglo-American strategic bombing.