Within the cycle Quo vadis democracy?, the Instituto Francés of Madrid presented yesterday the book Historia total de la Segunda Guerra Mundial: Lecciones para las democracias de hoy? (Total history of the Second World War: Lessons for today’s democracies?), by Olivier Wieviorka (pictured).
This book is born from a paradoxical observation. Although, at first sight, we are inundated with books on the Second World War, in reality there are few major syntheses on the subject, and none of the magnitude proposed by Olivier Wieviorka.
The result of many years of work, this work innovates, first of all, by its global approach, which differs from its illustrious Anglo-Saxon predecessors mainly focused on the war itself. The historian tackles all fronts: Europe, of course, but also Asia-Pacific (often neglected, particularly China), North Africa and the Middle East. In addition, it is interested in all the actors (Canadian, Australian, Indian…) and covers all areas: strategic, as expected, but also ideological, economic, logistical, diplomatic… , without forgetting the social history and memory, which is always treated, when approached, as something secondary.
Finally, the historian extensively renews the subject, often somewhat out of date, incorporating all the essential works published in the last generation in a demonstration as rigorous in its content as clear in its form. From this emerges a great story, well written and formidably represented, which shows to what extent this conflict was truly global and total. A work which is at the same time dedicated to narrating, understanding and explaining, adopting the demand formulated by Albert Camus in The Rebellious Man: ‘One may think that an age which, in fifty years’ time, uproots, enslaves or kills seventy million human beings must first be judged. But first it is necessary to understand their guilt».
Pages: 1.104
Publisher: Editorial Crítica
Binding: Hard cover
ISBN: 9788491997498
RPP: 36 euros