What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
What explains the disasters that befell Europe in the first half of the twentieth century?
To what extent did the two world wars settle the issues that caused them? What legacies to the future did they leave?
In what ways did Europe’s internal conflicts between 1914 and 1945 have global implications?
Looking Back: In what ways were the major phenomena of the first half of the twentieth century—world wars, the Great Depression, fascism, the Holocaust, the emergence of the United States as a global power—rooted in earlier times?
Next Steps: For Further Study
Michael Burleigh, The Third Reich: A New History (2001). A fresh and thorough look at the Nazi era in Germany’s history.
John Keegan, The Second World War (2005). A comprehensive account by a well-known scholar.
Bernd Martin, Japan and Germany in the Modern World (1995). A comparative study of these two countries’ modern history and the relationship between them.
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent (2000). A history of Europe in the twentieth century that views the era as a struggle among liberal democracy, fascism, and communism.
Michael S. Nieberg, Fighting the Great War: A Global History (2006). An exploration of the origins and conduct of World War I.
Dietman Rothermund, The Global Impact of the Great Depression, 1929–1939 (1996). An examination of the origins of the Depression in America and Europe and its impact in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
First World War.com, http://www.firstworldwar.com. A Web site rich with articles, documents, photos, diaries, and more that illustrate the history of World War I.
“The Holocaust,” http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/holo.html. A wealth of essays, maps, photographs, and timelines that explores the Holocaust and the context in which it arose.