Synopses & Reviews
Chapter One Time Line of World War II
This time line provides an overall perspective on World War II, including the years immediately preceding and following the conflict. It was a global war, fought in Europe, on the Atlantic, across the islands of the central and western Pacific, and in the countries of eastern and central Asia. Time lines covering specific subject areas can be found in each particular chapter; this main time line is useful as a linear, year-by-year measure of the war on all fronts, providing a brief overview of the scope of the conflict as well as the staggering human costs of a worldwide conflagration that took some 50 million lives.
1918 november 11: World War I (1914 18) ends with the surrender of Germany and Austria-Hungary to the Allied powers (the United States, France, and Great Britain).
1919 June 28: The Treaty of Versailles formalizes the surrender of Germany and creates the League of Nations, a multination international organization created to preserve the peace. The treaty also imposes harsh reparation terms on Germany.
1920 March 19: The U.S. Senate fails to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. U.S. failure to join the League of Nations weakens that organization.
1923 Germany is devastated by inflation, which leads to increasing political instability and to the weakening of its democratic government; the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler begins to grow.
1929 October 29: The stock market crash in the United States sets off a worldwide economic depression, which weakens democratic governments all over the world and strengthens the appeal of dictators and militarists in Europe and Asia.
1931 September 19: Japan invades Manchuria, China;its forces occupy Changchun, Kirin, and Mukden; the first Japanese aggression on Asian mainland occurs.
September 21: The Chinese government appeals to the League of Nations for assistance against the Japanese invasion.
December 12: French troops leave the Saarland, an area inhabited by a large number of ethnic Germans and occupied by France in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles.
1932 January 9: Its economy in shambles, Germany defaults on World War I reparation payments to Allied nations that were mandated in the Treaty of Versailles.
February 28: The Japanese proclaim the puppet state of Manchukuo in the occupied Chinese territory of Manchuria.
March 13: Nazi leader Adolf Hitler runs a close second to World War I hero and incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg in the German presidential election.
May 15: The assassination of Japanese Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai leaves the nation's government dominated by the military.
July 31: Nazis win 230 seats in the German Reichstag (legislature) and become the largest party in that body.
November 8: Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president of the United States.
December 2: General Kurt von Schleicher becomes chancellor of Germany but is unable to form an effective government in the face of mounting Nazi opposition.
1933 January 30: Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany through appointment by President Paul von Hindenburg. He gains office with the assistance of politicians who believe they can keep him in check.
February 27: The Reichstag building burns in Berlin; in order to secure unlimited powers for Hitler, the Nazis falsely accuse the Communists of setting the blaze.
March 23: The Reichstaggives Hitler dictatorial powers.
March 27: Japan withdraws from the League of Nations after the League criticizes its policies in China.
July 14: Germany outlaws all political parties except the Nazi Party.
September 2: Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign a friendship accord. They agree to support each other politically and not to go to war with each other.
October 14: Germany formally withdraws from the League of Nations.
1934 June 30: Hitler orders the purge and murder of top leaders in the SA (Sturmabteilung), his paramilitary storm troopers, as a way of appeasing the regular German army, which is threatened by the SA.
July 25: Nazi sympathizers in Austria assassinate Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss during an attempted coup. Mussolini protests German meddling in Austrian affairs, and the Nazis back down from further violence.
August 2: German President Hindenburg dies; Hitler assumes office of president and total dictatorial power.
December 29: Japan repudiates the Washington and London treaties of 1921 limiting the naval tonnage of the signatories in order to expand its navy.
1935 January 13: A plebiscite in the Saarland favors union with Germany over France.
April 1: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the first U.S. Neutrality Act.
August 15: The Nazis ban marriages between Germans and Jews.
September 15: The Nuremberg Laws strip Jews of most of their rights as German citizens.
October 3: Italy invades the East African nation of Ethiopia.
October 19: The League of Nations approves partial sanctions against Italy in response to the invasion of Ethiopia.
1936 March 7: German troops occupy the Rhineland region of Germany, which had beendemilitarized by the Treaty of Versailles.
May 5: The Italians capture the city of Addis Ababa; organized resistance in Ethiopia ends.
July 17: The Spanish Civil War begins.
August 1: The German government hosts the games of the 11th Olympiad in Berlin.
October 25: Hitler and Mussolini form the Rome-Berlin Axis declaring common foreign policies in Europe.
November 25: Germany and Japan agree to Anti-Comintern Pact (see Chapter 2, "Causes of War"), pledging mutual support against the Soviet Union.
December 10: King Edward VIII of England abdicates and is succeeded by his younger brother, who is crowned King George VI.
1937 April 27: The Condor Legion, consisting of German airmen supporting the Spanish Nationalists of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, bombs the Spanish city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
May 28: Neville Chamberlain becomes prime minister of Great Britain.
June 11: Soviet dictator Josef Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals and other members of the officer corps.
Synopsis
More than 12 million American men and women entered the U.S. armed forces during World War II, and millions more worked and sacrificed at home to help the Allied cause to defeat the Axis powers. At the close of the war, America had become the leading nation on the global stage, and its veterans returned home to forge a vibrant postwar society. Written under the direction of two distinguished historians,
The World War II Desk Reference explains in clear prose, backed by rosters of statistics, time lines, and maps, the global cataclysm that was World War II.
But this volume is not a typical almanac. With material ranging from battlefronts to important military commanders to armaments, among the backdrop of all the necessary political, social, and economic factors, Douglas Brinkley and Michael E. Haskew's reference will prove invaluable to readers. Photographs, lists, time lines, tables, glossaries, and maps encapsulate many pieces of complicated information, making The World War II Desk Reference immensely browsable. The book also includes a helpful resource on national World War II monuments, organizations, and museums.
Throughout the book, you'll find oral histories culled from several sources, including the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, which holds the world's largest repository of valuable letters, journals, and other war-related records. Excerpted from those who fought on both sides, these accounts add a deeply touching, profoundly personal dimension seldom found in other books on World War II.
In a modern world plagued by terrorism, dictators, and weapons of mass destruction, Brinkley and Haskew's seminal work reminds us that America's role in World War II led to a truly monumental victory. For World War II enthusiasts, history buffs, and anyone interested in our nation's history, this is the one book to own.
About the Author
Douglas Brinkley is Distinguished Professor of History and director of the Theodore Roosevelt Center for American Civilization at Tulane University. Brinkley's recent publications include the "New York Times" bestseller Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation with Stephen E. Ambrose. He lives in New Orleans with his wife, Anne, daughter, Benton, and son, Johnathan.