War of the world: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West

Cover......Page 1
Copyright page......Page 8
Contents\r......Page 13
List of Illustrations......Page 15
Illustrations......Page 75
4.  \'Bon appetit!\': German cartoon of March 1904......Page 76
6.  The Archduke Francis Ferdinand meets Bosnian dignitaries in Sarajevo, June 28, 1914......Page 77
9.  Scottish prisoners of war, First World War......Page 78
10.  Russian cartoon of the peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, 1917-18......Page 79
12.  The waterfront at Danzig (Gdańsk)......Page 80
14.  Rudolf Schlichter, Armenian Horrors, watercolour on paper c. 1920......Page 81
15.  Greek refugees throng the docks at Smyrna, fleeing from Turkish troops, September 1922......Page 82
17.  Poverty in the American Depression......Page 83
19.  Soviet industrialization poster......Page 84
21.  Georgian poster on self-determination......Page 85
23.  Jacob Abter, one of the members of the Leningrad Society for the Deaf and Dumb executed during the Great Terror......Page 86
26.  Victor Klemperer......Page 87
29.  Henryka Lappo before deportation from eastern Poland to the Soviet Union......Page 88
31.  Five Jewish women and girls about to be shot outside Liebau, in Latvia, in December 1941......Page 89
33.  A man tends children wounded in a Japanese raid on Shanghai railway station, 1937......Page 90
36.  The Axis powers as aliens: American wartime poster......Page 91
38.  A German soldier in the wake of the Battle of Kursk in July 1943......Page 92
40.  The destruction of Dresden in February 1945......Page 93
42.  Phoenix war worker Natalie Nickerson with a Japanese soldier\'s skull......Page 94
44.  A Japanese naval lieutenant is persuaded to lay down his arms on Okinawa......Page 95
46.  Soldiers training in Guatemala to fight the Guerrilla Army of the Poor......Page 96
47.  Chinese children read from Chairman Mao\'s \'Little Red Book\'......Page 97
49.  Milan Lukić in his home town of Višegrad in 1992......Page 98
List of Maps......Page 18
Map 1. The Jewish Pale of Settlement......Page 19
Map 2. Austria-Hungary before the First World War......Page 20
Map 3. The German diaspora in the 1920s......Page 22
Map 4. Political boundaries after the Paris peace treaties, c. 1924......Page 24
Map 5. The Asian empires in autumn 1941......Page 26
Map 6. Manchuria and Korea......Page 27
Map 7. The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific, 1941–45......Page 28
Map 8. The Nazi Empire at its maximum extent, autumn 1942......Page 30
Map 9. The Pale of Settlement and the Holocaust......Page 32
Map 10. Germany partitioned, 1945......Page 33
List of Tables......Page 0
I.1  Battlefield deaths as percentages of world population......Page 37
I.2  Majority population as a percentage of total population......Page 58
I.3  Volatility: standard deviations for inflation and growth, G7 economies, 1880–2004......Page 62
I.4  Approximate duration of selected early-modern and modern empires......Page 67
The Descent of the West......Page 69
1.1  Average annual growth rate of per capita GDP, 1870–1913......Page 139
5.1  German soldiers reporting sick, August 1914–July 1918......Page 244
5.2  Ethnic minorities in East Central European states, c. 1930–31......Page 263
6.1  Output and prices: cumulative changes, 1929–1932......Page 292
6.2  Victims of Stalinist \'ethnic cleansing\', c. 1926–1954......Page 316
7.1  Maximum percentage of votes won by fascist or \'semi-fascist\' parties in free national elections held during 1930s......Page 331
7.2  Real output from peak to trough in the Depression......Page 332
7.3  Real output, trough to 1938 (or latest available date), selected European countries......Page 344
7.4  Percentage of Prussian/German Jews who married outside the faith, 1875–1933......Page 349
8.1  Population per square mile, 1938......Page 381
8.2  Japan\'s raw materials deficit, 1897–1936 (thousands of yen)......Page 393
9.1  UK expenditure on rearmament and government deficit as percentage of GDP, 1933–1939......Page 426
Ignominious Isolation......Page 428
10.1  The price of German Young Plan bonds in London, 1935–1939......Page 471
11.1  The Battle of Britain July 10–October 31, 1940......Page 492
15.1  Ratio of Allied to Axis GDP, with and without the United States, 1938–1945......Page 614
15.2  German Prisoners of War, 1st quarter 1941–1st quarter 1945......Page 648
16.1  Wehrmacht deaths, 1939–1945......Page 654
16.2  The impact of bombing, January 1942–January 1945 (January 1943 = 100)......Page 667
E.1  The ratio of European to East Asian per capita GDP, 1960–2004......Page 734
I.1  Mixed marriages as a percentage of all marriages involving one or two Jewish partners, selected European countries, regions and cities in the 1920s......Page 52
1.1  Empires in 1913......Page 115
2.1  Principal locations of the 1881–2 pogroms......Page 159
3.1  Bond prices of the European great powers, July–December 1914......Page 184
Table 5.1  Germany\'s territorial and population losses under the Treaty of Versailles......Page 260
The Economic Case for War......Page 466
Preludes......Page 526
14.1  Prisoners of the Japanese Southern offensive and their fates, 1941–45......Page 595
16.1  The impact of allied bombing (percentage change between June 1943 and January 1945)......Page 666
16.2  The involuntary exodus of the Germans......Page 682
A note on transliteration and other linguistic conventions......Page 34
The Lethal Century......Page 35
Gene Pools......Page 44
Diasporas and Pales......Page 49
The Race Meme......Page 53
Blood Borders......Page 57
Volatility and Its Discontents......Page 61
Empire-States......Page 64
The Fifty Years War......Page 71
Part I – The Great Train Crash......Page 99
9/11/01......Page 101
Empires......Page 108
Miscegenation......Page 117
The Jewish \'Question\'......Page 122
The Economics of Anti-Semitism......Page 129
The German Diaspora......Page 133
A Glistering World......Page 138
Yellow and White Perils......Page 141
Tsushima......Page 149
Marxism Turns Eastwards......Page 154
Pogrom......Page 162
Russia Turns Westwards......Page 168
Death in Ruritania......Page 170
The Shock of War......Page 177
The End of the Pax Britannica......Page 189
The House of Saxe-Coburg......Page 191
The Generals\' War......Page 200
World War......Page 207
Why the Germans Lost......Page 210
Comrades......Page 216
Hatred in the Trenches......Page 221
The Surrender......Page 229
The War in the East......Page 232
The Red Plague......Page 239
Redrawing the Map......Page 257
The Death Throes of Empire......Page 272
The Graves of Nations......Page 282
Part II – Empire-States......Page 285
From Jazz to Blues......Page 287
Fellow Travellers......Page 296
The Big Zone......Page 302
Killing Peoples......Page 310
The Leader Speaks......Page 319
Mussolini\'s Moment......Page 325
Brother Hitler......Page 333
Inside the \'Folk-Community\'......Page 343
The Sin Against the Blood......Page 350
Protecting the Blood......Page 356
Where to Go?......Page 368
Living Space......Page 375
The Other Island Story......Page 383
\'The Only Way Out\'......Page 389
A Disease of the Skin......Page 395
China\'s War......Page 404
A Case for Pre-Emption?......Page 410
The Strategic Case for Appeasement......Page 417
The Economic Case for Appeasement......Page 423
The Social Character of Appeasement......Page 432
A Far-Away Country......Page 443
September 1938......Page 447
The War Not Fought......Page 459
Towards the Débâcle......Page 470
The End of Appeasement......Page 479
Part III – Killing Space......Page 481
Lightning War......Page 483
\'Let Chaos Flourish\'......Page 494
Himmlertown......Page 500
Mordor......Page 507
Pan and Fire......Page 514
Two Faces of Totalitarianism......Page 521
Monkey\'s Bet......Page 530
Barbarossa......Page 532
General Plan East......Page 537
War of Extermination......Page 540
Perpetrators......Page 544
Neighbours......Page 549
Hitler\'s Melting Pot......Page 555
The Defiled Empire......Page 559
A Racial World Order......Page 564
Rape......Page 573
Puppets......Page 579
Japan Turns Southwards......Page 581
The Logic of Pearl Harbor......Page 585
The Centrifuge......Page 590
Prisoners and Collaborators......Page 594
Part IV – A Tainted Triumph......Page 601
15  The Osmosis of War......Page 603
Auschwitz and Hiroshima......Page 604
Imagined Victories......Page 610
Anatomy of an Alliance......Page 620
Deep War......Page 631
To the Death......Page 635
16  Kaputt......Page 651
Twilight of the Devils......Page 652
Payback......Page 656
\'Little Boy\'......Page 669
Slaughterhouse \'45......Page 674
War Without End?......Page 687
Chickens......Page 694
The Third World\'s War......Page 704
Nixon in China......Page 715
The World Reorientated......Page 724
Appendix: The War of the World in Historical Perspective......Page 745
Introduction......Page 753
1  Empires and Races......Page 755
2  Orient Express......Page 759
3  Fault Lines......Page 761
4  The Contagion of War......Page 764
5  Graves of Nations......Page 765
6  The Plan......Page 769
7  Strange Folk......Page 771
8  An Incidental Empire......Page 776
9  Defending the Indefensible......Page 779
10  The Pity of Peace......Page 783
11  Blitzkrieg......Page 789
12  Through the Looking Glass......Page 791
13  Killers and Collaborators......Page 793
14  The Gates of Hell......Page 796
15  The Osmosis of War......Page 800
16  Kaputt......Page 807
Epilogue: The Descent of the West......Page 811
A......Page 815
B......Page 817
C......Page 822
D......Page 826
E......Page 827
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Acknowledgements......Page 863
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B......Page 869
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