Ripon Public Library

Moral combat, good and evil in World War II, Michael Burleigh

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. [567]-622) and index

no index present

non fiction

Moral combat

703284351

Michael Burleigh

British historian Burleigh (Blood Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism) delivers a long, riveting account of the awful atrocities of WWII and the perverted reasoning behind them. Burleigh explains that Communist, Nazi, Fascist, and Japanese systems claimed to be regimes of public virtue carrying out inexorable historical processes. Proclaiming that the only evil was obstructing this march to utopia, they discarded the rule of law and alternative moral authority (religion, ethics)

good and evil in World War II

The predators -- Appeasement -- Brotherly enemies -- The rape of Poland -- Trampling the remains -- Not losing: Churchill's Britain -- Under the swastika: Nazi occupied Europe -- Barbarossa -- Global war -- The resistance -- Moral calculus -- Beneath the mask of command -- Antagonistic allies -- 'We were savages': combat soldiers -- Massacring the innocents -- Journeys through night -- Observing an avalanche -- Tenuous altruism -- 'The King's thunderbolts are righteous': RAF Bomber Command -- Is that Britain?--No, it's Brittany -- The predators at bay