The Second World War, 1940-45
Multiple Choice Questions
Exam Questions
Discussion Questions
What part did values play in the outcome of the Second World War as compared to material factors?
How did Britain and France hope to defeat Germany in 1939?
What was the Phoney War?
Contrast the plans for a post-war order of Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
How and why did the Axis states escalate a European conflict in 1940-1941?
How did the Allies out-mobilize the Axis in the Second World War?
How did the fall of France influence strategies by the great powers?
How well was the Axis able to coordinate war efforts and strategies?
How did the US, Soviet Union, and Britain disagree over war strategies?
It what ways can the Second World War be described as a total war?
Exam Questions
Why did the Grand Alliance break down towards the end of the Second World War?
Why did the Allies win the Second World War?
Account for the escalation of a conflict over Poland to a global conflict by 1942.
Weblinks
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/yalta.asp – text of Protocol of Yalta Conference 1945
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/atlantic.asp – text of Atlantic Charter 1941
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/The-War-Years-1931-1941-Clipreel-Part-7/1f7293d05bac43e119045a6c5f1d49f9?searchfilter=Compilations%2fUniversal+Newsreels%2fThe+War+Years+1931-1941+Clipreel%3a+Part+7%2f19621 – video of newsreel clip on the “Phoney War”
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/we_shall_fight_on_the_beaches.htm – text and audio of Churchill’s speech in House of Commons “We Shall Fight on the Beaches.”
http://www.realwarphotos.com/ – database of photographs from the Second World War
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/The-War-Years-1931-1941-Clipreel-Part-14/429b5262c292039639c231e6ea1834a7?searchfilter=Compilations%2fUniversal+Newsreels%2fThe+War+Years+1931-1941+Clipreel%3a+Part+14%2f19621 – newsreel clip of the fall of France 1940
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Dip/PaW/200.html Text of 1941 Lend-Lease Act
https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/einstein_letter_photograph.htm – letter from Einstein to Roosevelt regarding the atomic bomb, 1939
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=70 – Roosevelt speech setting out Four Freedoms, over which war was being fought 1941
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Overlord/GreatCrusade.html – leaflet from Eisenhower on the allied landings in Normandy June 1944
Bibliography
De Ninno, Fabio, “The Italian Navy and Japan, the Indian Ocean, Failed Cooperation, and Tripartite Relations (1935-1943)”, War in History 27:2 (2018) 224-248.
Gallicchio, Marc, Unconditional: The Japanese Surrender in World War II, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023).
Gooch, John, “The Politics of Strategy: Great Britain, Australia, and the War against Japan, 1939-1945,” War in History 10:4 (2003) 424-447.
Hammond, Richard, “An Enduring Influence on Imperial Defence and Grand Strategy: British Perceptions of the Italian Navy, 1935-1943,” International History Review 39:5 (2017) 810-835.
Hammond, Richard, Strangling the Axis: The Fight for Control of the Mediterranean during the Second World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Martin, Jamie, “The Global Crisis of Commodity Glut during the Second World War,” International History Review 43:6 (2021) 1273-1290.
Mayers, David, FDR’S Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis: From the Rise of Hitler to the End of World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
O’Sullivan, Dónal, Dealing with the Devil: Anglo-Soviet Intelligence Cooperation during the Second World War, (New York, Peter Lang, 2010).
Smart, Nick, British Strategy and Politics during the Phony War: Before the Balloon Went Up, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003).
Yellen, Jeremy A., “The Specter of Revolution: Reconsidering Japan’s Decision to Surrender,” International History Review 35:1 (2013) 205-226.