Moral Combat: Good and Evil in World War II (Part 2 of 2)

by Michael Burleigh, Michael Kramer (Reader)

[This is Part 2 of a 2-part Audiobook Cassette Library Edition in vinyl case.]

In this sweepingly ambitious overview of World War II, Michael Burleigh combines meticulous scholarship with a remarkable depth of knowledge and an astonishing scope. By exploring the moral sentiments of entire societies and their leaders and how such attitudes changed under the impact of total war, Burleigh presents listeners with a fresh and powerful perspective on a conflict that continues to shape world politics. Whereas previous histories of the war have tended to focus on grand strategy or major battles, Burleigh brings his painstaking scholarship and profound sensibility to bear on the factors that shaped choices that were life-and-death decisions. These choices were made in real time, without the benefit of a philosopher's reflection, giving a moral content to the war that shaped it as decisively as any battle.

Although the Nazis and the Japanese had radically different moral universes from those of their Allied opponents, the Western Allies found themselves aligned with a no less cruel dictatorship after rejecting the option of appeasing aggression. The war was the sum of myriad choices made by governments, communities, and individuals, leading some to enthusiastically embrace evil and others to consciously reject it, with a range of more ambiguously human responses in between. Spanning both major theaters, Moral Combat sheds a revealing light on how entire nations changed under the shock of total war.

Emphasizing the role of the past in making sense of the present, Burleigh's book offers essential insights into the choices we face today--in some circles it is always 1938 and every aggressor is a new Hitler. If we do go to war, we need to know what it will mean for the individuals who command and fight it. Original, perceptive, and astonishing in scholarship and scope, this is an unforgettable and hugely important work of Second World War history.

Audio Cassette

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Michael Burleigh is a British author and historian.
In 1977 Michael Burleigh took a first class honours degree in Medieval and Modern History at University College London, winning the Pollard, Dolley and Sir William Mayer prizes. After a PhD in medieval history in 1982, he went on to hold posts at New College, Oxford, the London School of Economics, and Cardiff where he was Distinguished Research Professor in Modern History. He has also been Raoul Wallenberg Chair of Human Rights at Rutgers University in New Jersey, William Rand Kenan Professor of History at Washington & Lee University in Virginia, and Kratter Visiting Professor at Stanford University, California. In 2002 he gave the three Cardinal Basil Hume Memorial Lectures at Heythrop College, University of London. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He founded the journal Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions and is on the editorial boards of Totalitarismus und Demokratie and Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Reviews

[Mike McNichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book (copyright 2011) about ten years ago, intending to read it right away. I'm glad now that I waited until January 2025 to start the book (it's quite long and rather dense, but a fascinating read). There is much in the beginning of the book about the rise of the authoritarian powers in Germany, Japan, Italy, and the Soviet Union that are apt for today.

Rather than explain, I thought it best to let the author speak for himself:

From the introduction (written in 2009): "My endeavour is emphatically on of history, which means that it has few recipes for future conduct, beyond those so platitudinous that they require scant reiteration like don't vote for extremist parties or invest hope in the rationality of mad dictators." (p. viii)

In reference to Italy joining the German and Japan Anti-Comintern Pact in 1937: "Anything that disrupted the status quo was good, like a blast of cold air into a torpid room." (p. 11)

"Loyalty became the supreme honour of the SS man . . ." (p. 22)

"Although the Nazis played the democratic electoral game, their attitude towards even the most heinous activities was symbolised by Hitler's vow to pardon five SA stormtroopers who, in August 1932, were convicted of kicking a Communist miner to death in front of his mother . . ." (p. 25)

"Carefully constructed propaganda, and his own vaulting rhetoric, ratcheted this relationship up to a more exalted plane, as the Führer did nothing to discourage the view that he was the race-nation's Redeemer or Saviour, godlike if not actually a god like Hirohito in Japan." (p. 26)

"Although the Nazi Party had its thuggish paramilitary element, it also appealed to the sober Protestant middle classes . . ." (p. 26)

You can sort these out for yourself. Better yet, read the book!

[Cecelia Hightower]

This book explores the moral sentiments of the societies and leaders of WW ll and how their attitudes motivated the conflict, and how they were transformed by the shock of total war. The author relates how the choices made by governments, communities, and individuals to enthusiastically embrace evil, to consciously reject it, or to determinedly overlook the war's moral quandaries were critical factors in a conflict that grew to consume the whole globe.

Spanning both major theaters and a wide spectrum of issues, for the Axis "predators" to the Allied appeasement, from the rape of Poland to the complexities of reparation this book illuminates how the war was driven by and decided by this deadly conflict of philosophies.

The author does a thought provoking job of explaining the barbarism done by the Asian and Nazi Axis and how allied troops were driven to retaliate in kind. The author doesn't justify or condemn any of the behavior, only peels it apart for examination, like peeling layers of an onion.

This was not a pleasant book to read, but very thought provoking and does a good job of removing the "glory" of war, even when one is defending their family and homeland. In addition it does a good job of exposing the double dealings that leaders of nations do while pretending they are doing things for the general population.