144material

HISTORY 144

THE WORLD AT WAR: 1939-1945

Pennsylvania State University

REVISION MATERIALS

These handouts are meant to help you understand the readings, and to prepare for the examination.

REVISION NOTES I - The opening stages of the war

REVISION NOTES II - The war unfolds 1941-43

REVISION NOTES III - Endgame 1943-1945

Some other selected class handouts

INTERNET RESOURCES

At the time of writing, some valuable launch sites for Second World War resources include the following:

One of the best overall launch sites

Personal memoirs and oral histories

Art and propaganda

One remarkable site collects the often explicit sexual propaganda of the war years

For new books about the war as they appear, check out:

http://www.sonic.net/~bstone/ and http://books.stonebooks.com/reading/

Other general sites:

http://www.museumofworldwarii.com/Tour.htm

http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/wwii.asp

www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook45.html

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ww2.htm

http://library.trinity.wa.edu.au/subjects/sose/coop/war2.htm

http://www.academicinfo.net/histww2.html

http://www.worldwar-2.net/links/links-index.htm

http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/By_Time_Period/20th_Century/Military_History/World_War_II/

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/bobhome.html (on the Battle of Britain)

http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/frame1.htm

A large collection of popular essays from World War II magazine is located at:

http://www.historynet.com/wwii/articlearchive/

Canada

One often-underplayed aspect of the war was the role played by Canada and Canadian armed forces. You can find excellent materials on this history at

http://www.junobeach.org/Centre/english/Links/links.html

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar

Also, a couple of pieces written by myself:

A recent article on defining the chronological span of the war – and debating who won?

I have also studied the fascist and ultra-Right campaign within the United States in my 1997 book Hoods and Shirts, which focuses heavily on Pennsylvania events and conditions.

MAP RESOURCES

A number of sites offer excellent MAP resources, too abundant to be listed in detail here. Suffice it to say that one or more of these sites will have something valuable for ANY of the classes.

By far the best and most comprehensive is a site from the US Military Academy at West Point.

Maps of the European Theater

Maps of the Pacific Theater

West Point also offers great map resources for the First World War, many of which are highly relevant to WW2 conditions

Other good map resources

FILM RESOURCES

For films about the war, both contemporary and later works, see for instance:

http://www.vietnamwar.net/ww2films.htm

http://www.epinions.com/content_3074203780 and also

http://www.epinions.com/content_2783420548

http://www.worldwar-2.net/world-war-2-on-film/world-war-2-on-film-index.htm

http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/filmnotes/filmsww2.html

(Do note that the reference on this page to extra credit does NOT apply to this course!)

INTO THE COLD WAR

For the aftermath of the war and the growing hostility between East and West, check out the chronology in this handout.

There are LOTS of other possibilities out there, which you will certainly use in your paper. As you must know, web-sites change frequently, so donÕt be surprised if some of these links are obsolete by the time you try them.