Sixty million people died in the Second World War, and still they tell us it was the Peoples War. The official history of the Second World War is Victors History. This is the history of the Second World War without the patriotic whitewash. The Second World War was not fought to stop fascism, or to liberate Europe. It was a war between imperialist powers to decide which among them would rule over the world, a division of the spoils of empire, and an iron cage for working people, enslaved to the war production drive. The unpatriotic history of the Second World War explains why the Great Powers fought most of their war not in their own countries, but in colonies in North Africa, in the Far East and in Germanys hoped-for Empire in the East. Find out how wildcat strikes, partisans in Europe and Asia, and soldiers mutinies came close to ending the war. And find out how the Allies invaded Europe and the Far East to save capitalism from being overthrown. James Heartfield challenges the received wisdom of the Second World War.
Unpatriotic History of the Second World War
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About the Author
James Heartfield has worked as a journalist, for a television company, as a lecturer and editor. He wrote 'The 'Death of the Subject' Explained' (2006) and 'The Aborigines' Protection Society' (2011). James lives in North London with his wife and two daughters.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant account that challenges the many myths and orthodoxies that paint WW2 as a just war.
14 Nov 2012
By A. J. Cox
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A brilliant counter to all the propaganda that still portrays the Second World War as a 'just war'. Heartfield shows us that WW2 was far from just and was a war between imperial powers that subjugated ordinary people to a brutal conflict that was not inevitable. The war gave vent to much ugly racial ideology not just on the part of Nazi Germany, but also the allied colonial powers: Churchill's racist comments about the Chinese and Indians, whom the UK was supposedly fighting on behalf of, expose the ugliness of class and imperial interests. Before we bring up the Holocaust, it is worth pointing out that in 1942 Britain adopted a policy of starving its imperial Bengali subjects into submission by destroying paddy fields. This was a war between elites and not the 'people's war' as often portrayed in many popular, post-war accounts. It is interesting how the senseless carnage of the First World War is often juxtaposed with WW2 to imply that the latter conflict was a morally just war. There was much senseless carnage in WW2, not just the ruthless slaughter of European Jewry by the Nazis, but also there were many unnecessary atrocities against the axis powers too: the comprehensive bombings of Hamburg and Dresden, which were displays of military might that killed many civilians with the intention of demoralising and degrading ordinary Germans; the use of nuclear bombs for the same effect against the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the very end of the war. Heartfield also shatters the myth that the atomic bombings of Japan were necessary to save lives because of another myth that the Japanese did not believe in surrender - they had already been suing for peace 6 months in advance of Hiroshima. Read more ›
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have always been suspicious about government motives for going to war, and history books often now offer an honest account of many of them which contrasts strongly with the xenophobic jingoism that gripped nations at the time. The Crimean War, WWI, Suez, Vietnam, Korea all have a strongly critical analysis available.
For some reason, however, WWII has seemingly evaded such scrutiny... until now.
This book lays bare the almost incomprehensible cost of the war, not only in lives, but in industrial production. It reveals that, as bloody usual, the working class paid the price, either at the front or in the mines, factories and on the land whilst the rich enjoyed sumptuous meals off the ration in exclusive restaurants. Profiteering by corporations was rife in all the warring countries.
The book also challenges the widely held assumption that the allies fought fascism for altruistic reasons. A few countervailing facts are that Churchill sympathised with Mussolini, the colonies were subjected to appalling suffering to feed the European war effort and the Japanese probably fought with such fanaticism because the United States had made no provision for accommodating prisoners and simply executed them by the thousand. And they knew that.
James Hartfield asks if Hitler's policy of lebensraum was so very different to the United States, which had exterminated the native population of the Americas? Was it so different to the British, who conquered vast tracts of the world and ruled with great brutality, starving millions to death in Bengal when it suited Churchill's purposes? Were the motives of the protagonists so very different? The answer is probably not. This is evidenced by the fact that, at the end of the war, all popular working-class movements were crushed by the victorious powers if they posed any threat to the resumption of empire.
This book has certainly changed my view.
For some reason, however, WWII has seemingly evaded such scrutiny... until now.
This book lays bare the almost incomprehensible cost of the war, not only in lives, but in industrial production. It reveals that, as bloody usual, the working class paid the price, either at the front or in the mines, factories and on the land whilst the rich enjoyed sumptuous meals off the ration in exclusive restaurants. Profiteering by corporations was rife in all the warring countries.
The book also challenges the widely held assumption that the allies fought fascism for altruistic reasons. A few countervailing facts are that Churchill sympathised with Mussolini, the colonies were subjected to appalling suffering to feed the European war effort and the Japanese probably fought with such fanaticism because the United States had made no provision for accommodating prisoners and simply executed them by the thousand. And they knew that.
James Hartfield asks if Hitler's policy of lebensraum was so very different to the United States, which had exterminated the native population of the Americas? Was it so different to the British, who conquered vast tracts of the world and ruled with great brutality, starving millions to death in Bengal when it suited Churchill's purposes? Were the motives of the protagonists so very different? The answer is probably not. This is evidenced by the fact that, at the end of the war, all popular working-class movements were crushed by the victorious powers if they posed any threat to the resumption of empire.
This book has certainly changed my view.
By Blum
Format:Kindle Edition
I personally found this book to be a revealing insight into some of the less obvious reasons and consequences of the second world war. From the fatal castration of the left in the west to the exploitation of nationalism and self determination in the colonies, Hartfield has presented a well reasoned argument for the examination of some of the darker motives of the victors without ignoring or lessening the importance of the well known barbaric excesses which are already familiar to us all.
By Alan Frame
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
An excellent, but disturbing book. The book was marred by not being properly proof-read - the grammatical mistakes confused the reading of it.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The big problem with scholarship & scholars in general is that they have mostly been schooled in elite institutions & in the process have gained a proven track record of subservience to power.
Meaning that the great majority of people who write the history books are about as likely to be as unbiased & honest in their accounts of State as journalists & politicians are in theirs.
The problem with the myths that we are sold about Britain & America's role in the world (past & present) is that they just don't make sense, unless one is prepared to accept the most two dimensional cartoonistic notion that "we" are the good guys & "they" are/were the bad.
This book, however -as the title suggests- doesn't just regurgitate the oft told myths.
Only a free thinker with a truly independent mind would be open to the alternative interpretation of events contained in this book. Those wanting more self-serving narratives of how "good" we are & have been in the past should just stick to mainstream histories.
Meaning that the great majority of people who write the history books are about as likely to be as unbiased & honest in their accounts of State as journalists & politicians are in theirs.
The problem with the myths that we are sold about Britain & America's role in the world (past & present) is that they just don't make sense, unless one is prepared to accept the most two dimensional cartoonistic notion that "we" are the good guys & "they" are/were the bad.
This book, however -as the title suggests- doesn't just regurgitate the oft told myths.
Only a free thinker with a truly independent mind would be open to the alternative interpretation of events contained in this book. Those wanting more self-serving narratives of how "good" we are & have been in the past should just stick to mainstream histories.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
interisting but oh so infuriating
a little bit of proof reading and it would have flowed so much better:
the ideology of antisemitism was [] idiological... come on ! Read more
the ideology of antisemitism was [] idiological... come on ! Read more
Published 3 months ago by ian
1.0 out of 5 stars
Usual Trotskyist pro-fascist lies
The author claims that WW2 was an imperialist war. Was the Soviet Union's war against Nazi aggression just another act of imperialist aggression? Read more
Published 9 months ago by William Podmore
1.0 out of 5 stars
Naive and Primitive
While the book is interesting because it tells about the less-than-heroic deeds by allied forces and commanders during the Second World War, it is extremely naive and primitive in... Read more
Published 11 months ago by SilverFlame
5.0 out of 5 stars
war; what is it good for?
How does something so barbaric as a bloody war come to be the source of proud or even warm remembrance.
Perhaps because the war we "remember" it's not the war we fought. Read more
Perhaps because the war we "remember" it's not the war we fought. Read more
Published 13 months ago by caffinedreams
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