Unpatriotic History of the Second World War
by James Heartfield

The Second World War was not the Good War of legend. James Heartfield explains that both Allies and Axis powers fought for the same goals - territory, markets and natural resources.

Sixty million people died in the Second World War, and still they tell us it was the Peoples War.

The official history of the Second World War is Victors History. This is the history of the Second World War without the patriotic whitewash.

The Second World War was not fought to stop fascism, or to liberate Europe. It was a war between imperialist powers to decide which among them would rule over the world, a division of the spoils of empire, and an iron cage for working people, enslaved to the war production drive.

The unpatriotic history of the Second World War explains why the Great Powers fought most of their war not in their own countries, but in colonies in North Africa, in the Far East and in Germanys hoped-for Empire in the East. Find out how wildcat strikes, partisans in Europe and Asia, and soldiers mutinies came close to ending the war. And find out how the Allies invaded Europe and the Far East to save capitalism from being overthrown.

James Heartfield challenges the received wisdom of the Second World War.

Reviews:
James Heartfields’s book, ..is an impressive piece of research: 472 pages of text contain a wealth of information, and the 76 pages of notes reveal the huge range of sources that have been consulted ...

The book covers the whole course of the war and its impact on the shape of the post-war world. Everything is packed in, from major atrocities to minor absurdities.

Read more: http://londonsocialisthistorians.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/book-review-more-on-wwii.html ~ Ian Birchall, Socialist Historians Group

Beneath the fog of the People's War

In this reinterpretation of the events surrounding World War Two James Heartfield invites readers to reconsider the accepted victors’ histories of the period. This is not a run-of-the-mill retelling ...he gives us an unsanitised version of events and an analysis of the fundamental realities behind the conflict that cost sixty million lives and caused almost incalculable destruction of useful constructions (factories, railways, ships, dwellings and other buildings).

Read more: http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2012/no-1300-december-2012/book-reviews-unpatriotic-history-second-world-wa ~ Socialist Standard, http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2012/no-1300-december-2012/book-reviews-unpatriotic-history-second-world-wa

James Heartfield: setting the record straight

The author of ‘Unpatriotic History of the Second World War’ talks about another ‘holocaust’ and why America dropped atomic bombs on Japan

The Second World War is often presented in the West as the example of a “good war”. In fact it has been a reference point for many politicians and intellectuals to justify participation of Western countries in various conflicts around the world for more than half a century. This is perhaps why the subject matter of Heartfield’s book is so intriguing, and I was curious to find out his motivation for choosing to tell an “unpatriotic” history about the war.

Read more at: http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/weekend-review/james-heartfield-setting-the-record-straight-1.1249638 ~ Syed Hamad Ali, Gulf News

Friday 26 October 2012

Exploding the myth of a ‘People’s War’

James Heartfield demolishes the dominant anti-fascist narrative to reveal the truth about the Second World War: six years of slaughter, poverty and exploitation.

Neil Davenport

a trenchant and sustained demolition of the People’s War mythology. It provides a cogent account and analysis of how that conflict was ultimately a war against the people rather than for democracy.

Read more http://www.spiked-online.com/site/reviewofbooks_article/13025/ ~ Neil Davenport, http://www.spiked-online.com/site/reviewofbooks_article/13025/

The truth behind the Second World War

Chris Davison | August 16, 2012 |

a compelling and fascinating analysis, demolishing conventional accounts of the War and successfully constructing an alternative imperialist- and class-based model

read more: http://anticapitalists.org/2012/08/16/the-truth-behind-the-second-world-war/ ~ Anti-Capitalist Initiative, http://anticapitalists.org/2012/08/16/the-truth-behind-the-second-world-war/

‘It was either us or them’

Patrick West

It takes a brave soul to write a revisionist history of the Second World War, one that goes against the orthodoxy that it was a noble fight against Nazism and evil. strong stuff, and in sharp contrast with today’s best-selling histories

Read more: http://www.culturewars.org.uk/index.php/site/article/it_was_either_us_or_them/ ~ Culture Wars, http://www.culturewars.org.uk/index.php/site/article/it_was_either_us_or_them/