The West in the World, 4th Edition (Sherman)

Chapter 24: Into the Fire Again: World War II, 1939-1945

Chapter Summaries

By 1941, the capitalist democracies, communist Soviet Union, and fascist eastern and central European governments were engaged in a war even more devastating than the first. Unlike World War I, more civilians than soldiers were killed, often through campaigns of terror or the genocide carried out against the Jews and other minority populations of Europe. New weapons contributed to the devastation, and the atomic bomb brought a new realization of the potential for annihilation that modern warfare held.