{"id":12570,"date":"2020-08-18T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12570"},"modified":"2020-08-18T09:07:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T16:07:47","slug":"taking-a-second-look-at-wwii-with-victor-davis-hansons-the-second-world-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/taking-a-second-look-at-wwii-with-victor-davis-hansons-the-second-world-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking a Second Look at WWII with Victor Davis Hanson\u2019s \u2018The Second World Wars\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ed Driscoll \/\/ PJ Media<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most people today assume that our understanding of WWII is largely complete, thanks to the enormous quantity of books, TV series such as ITV\u2019s classic 1970s documentary&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2WPUDa8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The World at War<\/a>,<\/em>&nbsp;the myriad of documentaries that aired in the early days of the History Channel cable TV network, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/abluteau.wordpress.com\/2009\/09\/04\/the-war-that-never-ends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the unending series of movies produced by Hollywood<\/a>, particularly when compared to its predecessor, WWI. But&nbsp;classicist&nbsp;historian and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/pjmedia.com\/columnist\/victor-davis-hanson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fellow PJM columnist Victor Davis Hanson<\/a>&nbsp;does yeoman\u2019s work unpacking the events of 1939-1945.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting with the plurality in the title, Hanson\u2019s 2017 book,&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Z1e42j\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;emphasizes the disparate nature of the War\u2019s myriad battles. Hanson also explores the enormous difference in mindsets between the leaders of the Axis and Allied powers. He makes plain their difference in desired outcomes right on page three, when he notes, \u201cThe Axis losers killed or starved to death about 80 percent of all those who died during the war. The Allied victors largely killed Axis soldiers; the defeated Axis, mostly civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Curtis LeMay Repurposes the B-29<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Allies were also able to improvise and adjust tactics far more easily than the Axis, Hanson writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>The same asymmetry was true at sea, especially in the Battle of the Atlantic. The Allied leadership made operational changes and technological improvements of surface ships and planes far more rapidly than could the U-boats of the Kriegsmarine. America adapted to repair and produce aircraft carriers and train new crews at a pace inconceivable in Japan. The Allies\u2014including the Soviet Union on most occasions\u2014usually avoided starting theater wars that ended in multiyear infantry quagmires. In contrast, Japan, Germany, and Italy respectively bogged down in China, the Soviet Union, and North Africa and the Balkans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pjmedia.com\/eddriscoll\/2020\/05\/14\/vdh-the-second-world-wars-n392689\">Read the full book review here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ed Driscoll \/\/ PJ Media Most people today assume that our understanding of WWII is largely complete, thanks to the enormous quantity of books, TV series such as ITV\u2019s classic 1970s documentary&nbsp;The World at War,&nbsp;the myriad of documentaries that aired in the early days of the History Channel cable TV network, and&nbsp;the unending series of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-3gK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10798,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/q-a-hosted-by-jay-nordlinger-vdhs-wwii\/","url_meta":{"origin":12570,"position":0},"title":"Q &#038; A, Hosted by Jay Nordlinger: VDH\u2019s WWII","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Listen to Victor Davis Hanson chat about his new book with Jay Nordlinger on his podcast, Q & A. Victor Davis Hanson\u2019s new book is \u201cThe Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won.\u201d Jay asks him a slew of questions, including: What caused the war?\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11781,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/reeltalk-victor-davis-hanson\/","url_meta":{"origin":12570,"position":1},"title":"REELTALK: Victor Davis Hanson","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Listen to Victor Davis Hanson's interview with Audrey Russo on REELTALK here.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10694,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10694-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12570,"position":2},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson's interview with\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson's interview with \u00a0Lewis Lapham for The World in Time is now available: https:\/\/www.laphamsquarterly.org\/content\/victor-davis-hanson","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11730,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/video-victor-davis-hanson-on-destroying-leftist-racist-symbols-of-the-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":12570,"position":3},"title":"Video: Victor Davis Hanson on Destroying Leftist Racist Symbols of the Past","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 19, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Conservative Resurgence returns with a video adaptation of Victor Davis Hanson\u2019s latest column,\u00a0\u201cWaging War Against the Dead.\u201d Watch the full video on American Greatness here.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10830,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-war-of-wars-analyzed-to-the-third-decimal-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":12570,"position":4},"title":"The War of Wars Analyzed to the Third Decimal Place","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Santa\u2019s Book Bag By Larry Thornberry \/\/ The American Spectator A magnificent contribution from Victor Davis Hanson. The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won By Victor Davis Hanson (Basic Books, 652 pages, $40) Yes, Virginia, after thousands of books, lectures, debates, veteran memoirs, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;War&quot;","block_context":{"text":"War","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12972,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-on-the-crisis-at-the-border-the-liberal-elites-abstract-empathy-and-what-he-loves-about-americ%e2%80%aaa%e2%80%ac\/","url_meta":{"origin":12570,"position":5},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson on the Crisis at the Border, the Liberal Elite&#8217;s &#8220;Abstract Empathy,&#8221; and What He Loves About Americ\u202aa\u202c","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr. Victor Davis Hanson's appearance on\u00a0The Megyn Kelly Show. 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