Major Problems in the History of World War II: Documents and Essays (review)

America's "good war" is difficult to teach. Is it world history, American history, or equal measures of European and Asian history with the United States as a major actor? Should the emphasis primarily be on the military aspects of the war—or the individual conflicts—or should equal time be given to social, intellectual, and economic issues? This volume in Houghton Mifflin's Major Problems in American History series does not answer these questions. It is, however, a particularly useful collection of documents and essays focusing on specifically American elements of the most important war of the twentieth century.

The editors have selected twelve topics, providing brief collections of documents followed by essays that take opposing positions on the particular subject. In the first chapter, "U.S. Entry into World War II," Bruce M. Russett argues that American participation in World War II was not necessary and that "the United States was no more secure at the end [of the war] than it could have been had it stayed out" (p. 23). Gerhard Weinberg, on the other hand, writes that the conflict was "A Necessary and Unavoidable War" (p. 33). This discussion of American entry into the war is followed by discussions of mobilization, the development of an Allied global strategy, separate chapters on the war with Germany and with Japan, the Home Front, the effects of the war on American culture, the impact of science and intelligence, the Holocaust, Franklin Roosevelt as Commander-in-Chief, and the use of the atom bomb. The final chapter presents a collection of six essays that deal with the legacy of World War II in American history and memory.

This work is designed specifically as a supplementary reading for a college-level course on World War II. Collections such as this generally have limited appeal outside the classroom and often little appeal in the classroom. This particular effort, however, is a refreshing change in this particular genre. The editors have provided a series of balanced and interesting discussions on aspects of American participation in the war. This work can easily be used to effectively augment a broader global treatment of World War II. It also may be of interest to the general reader who wants to look beyond the purely military aspects of American participation in a conflict that gave birth to modern American society and culture.