World War II: Crash Course

Video

Only a couple of decades after the end of the First World War—which was supposed to be the War that Ended All Wars—another, bigger, farther-flung, more destructive, and deadlier war began. Today, you'll learn about how the war in Europe progressed, from the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the invasion of Poland, to the Western and Eastern fronts, to VE Day and the atom bombs used in Japan.

Sources

-Hunt, Lynn et al. Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2019.
-Kotkin, Stephen. Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941. New York: Penguin, 2017.
-Mazower, Mark. Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. New York: Penguin, 2008.
-Overy, Richard. Russia’s War: A History of the Soviet Effort, 1941-1945. New York: Penguin, 1998.
-Smith, Bonnie G. Europe in the Contemporary World, 1900 to the Present, 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
-Snyder, Timothy. Bloodlands: Hitler between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books, 2010.