World War II a military and social history

"Course no. 810."

30 lectures (30 min. each).

Three part set in three containers.

Includes bibliographical references (guidebooks).

Part 1: Lecture 1. The origins of the second world war -- lecture 2. Hitler's challenge to the international system, 1933-1936 -- lecture 3. The failure of the international system -- lecture 4. The coming of war -- lecture 5. Blitzkrieg -- lecture 6. The German offensive in the west -- lecture 7. "Their finest hour"--Britain alone -- lecture 8. The battle of Britain -- lecture 9. Hitler moves east -- lecture 10. The Germans before Moscow.

Part 2: Lecture 11. The war in Asia -- lecture 12. The Japanese gamble -- lecture 13. The height of Japanese power -- lecture 14. Turning the tide in the Pacific--Midway and Guadalcanal -- lecture 15. The war in north Africa -- lecture 16. War in the Mediterranean--the invasion of Sicily and Italy -- lecture 17. Stalingrad--the turning point on the eastern front -- lecture 18. Eisenhower and Operation Overlord -- lecture 19. D-Day to Paris -- lecture 20. Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge.

Part 3: Lecture 21. Advance across the Pacific -- lecture 22. Turning point in the southwest Pacific--Leyte Gulf and the Philippines -- lecture 23. The final drive for Japan--Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the fire-bombing of Tokyo -- lecture 24. War in the air -- lecture 25. Hitler's new order in Europe -- lecture 26. "This man's army" -- lecture 27. Daily life, culture, and society in wartime -- lecture 28. The race for Berlin -- lecture 29. Truman, the bomb, and the end of the war in the Pacific -- lecture 30. The costs of the war.

Lectures by Thomas Childers, Professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.

This course examines one of the greatest conflicts in human history, World War II. Between 1937 and 1945, 55 million people perished. It was a series of interrelated conflicts; no continent was left untouched, no ocean or sea unaffected.

DVD.