The Meaning of the Second World War

by Ernest Mandel

The very scale of the 1939-45 war has often tempted historians to study particular campaigns at the expense of the wider panorama. In this readable and richly detailed history of the conflict, the Belgian scholar Ernest Mandel (author of the acclaimed Late Capitalism) outlines his view that the war was in fact a combination of several distinct struggles and a battle between rival imperialisms for world hegemony. In concise chapters, Mandel examines the role played by technology, science, logistics, weapons and propaganda. Throughout, he weaves a consideration of the military strategy of the opposing states into his analytical narrative of the war and its results.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Politics, Theory, European History

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1986

About the author

Ernest Ezra Mandel was a German born Belgian-Jewish Marxian economist and a Trotskyist activist and theorist. He fought in the underground resistance against the Nazis during the occupation of Belgium and he became a member of the Fourth International during his youth in Antwerp. Mandel is considered to be populariser of marxism.

Reviews

[Nathaniel Flakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a number of books about the war recently, and they generally follow the Great Man theory of history: this guy said this thing, and then that guy said that thing, and as a result 3.8 million German soldiers marched into Russia. That form of history be interesting, but it doesn't really explain much: yes, Hitler clearly had a lot of neuroses, but what made millions of people follow this particular man? Mandel takes the opposite tack here, looking at the structural causes of a war that killed some 80 million people. One example I found particularly interesting: when looking at the astounding collapse of France, many historians argue that the French generals were old, senile, and defeatist; others will argue that the German army had an advantage because they were all on meth (which is true!). But Mandel explains, in a very concise form, how the French ruling class was so afraid of revolution that they preferred military occupation by another imperialist power. The book is full of insights about how the course of the war was determined by economic factors, and ultimately by the class struggle. Particularly impressive is that Mandel, as a holocaust survivor, tries to explain how the contradictions of capitalism led to the genocide — he looks for rational explanations for this supreme irrationality. This is a welcome riposte to historians who present the Shoa as pure evil, thus mystifying it and in the process whitewashing the system that bears responsibility. An excellent book!

[Efrahim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitapta önce çıkan birkaç tezi şu şekilde özetlemek mümkün:
1- Savaşan güçler açısından nihai hedef, emperyalist bir dünya hegemonu olmaktı. Dolayısıyla savaşın ana taraflarını savunmacı bir gözlükle okumaya çalışmak pek anlamlı değil.
2- Savaş öncesi dönem, sadece yoğun silahlanma çabaları üzerinden okunamaz. Bu dönem aynı zamanda devrimci güçlerin doğrudan bastırıldığı veya pasifize edildiği bir süreçtir. Örneğin Alman işçi sınıfına ve soluna karşı uygulanan yoğun baskı da, SSCB'deki bürokratikleşme de bu sürecin bütününü değerlendirebilmek adına tablonun içerisine katılmalıdır.
3- Savaşı sadece devletlerin savaşı olarak değil, tüm toplumsal sınıfların çeşitli ittifak ve ayrışmalarla içerisinde yer aldığı topyekun bir savaş olarak görmek gerekir. Zira savaşın hemen sonrasında dünyanın birçok noktasında görülen radikal toplumsal değişiklikler de bu olağandışı savaş sürecinin uzantısıdır.
4-Son olarak; 1980'lerin ortasından bakıldığında 2.Dünya Savaşı, kapitalizmin çelişkilerine uzun vadeli bir derman olamamıştır. 1949'da patlayan Çin Devrimi, Asya ve Afrika'daki anti kolonyal mücadeleler, 1970'lerle birlikte kapitalizmin içerisine girdiği birikim krizi, yeni biçimlerde birçok sarsıntı ve çelişki çıkarır karşımıza.

[Soph Nova · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a short, accessible, and highly engaging history/Marxist analysis of the Second World War that gave me more clarity on the relationship between WWII and larger historical forces than countless other books could. Not only does it have very strong evidence for why the Soviet Union and the Red Army were just as, if not more responsible for the ultimate defeat of the Germans (beyond jus 'look how many more Russians died!'), but the analysis is rooted in a Marxist conception of imperialism and inter-ruling class conflict, rather than simply racist motivations. Even more of a Mandel fan after reading this.

[Swarthout · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good marxist history of the structural causes of wwii. class competition within germany and france caused unrest for the ruling classes, who seem to prefer brutality and genocide over socialism. ignore at your own peril, humanity !

[Tim Horvat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prvič prebral knjigo po predlogu bookfluencerja na Instagramu in nisem bil razočaran

[Dylan Popowicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mandel's important analysis of the cataclysmic events that shaped today's modern world is both relevant from a Marxist perspective and as a core reading of The Second World War as a whole. Previous historians have given us detailed descriptions of the experiences and background of the war(s) itself, but rarely have we been given such a concise look at the abstract totality of the years 1939-45: from the modes of production that allowed the Allies to win; the often ignored influences behind various imperialistic powers that were, including their raison-d'être in the war time environment; the neglected death figures of those that were killed in the name of the Aryan race before the Jews were even shuffled into the death camps; the hegemonic intent behind the murderous decision to drop the Bomb(s) (including an interesting rebuttal of Oppenheimer's statement that humanity's creation of the Atom Bomb was "inevitable") ... and with portent insight into the various class struggles that resided behind the apparent uniformity of every country involved. 



This book, delightful and brief, is an important read for anyone interested in the build up to the Cold War and the formatting of various globalising powers in the latter half of the twentieth century. It shows that the United State's involvement was much more calculated than being a simple response to assist it's allies (a revealing quote in-fact shows American leadership wishing to weaken European power by playing one side off the other). More importantly, although the theme is not touched upon as in-depth as this reader may have wished, Mandel shows how the war allowed for the bourgeoisie of various nations to avoid the inevitable forces of internal class struggle and to at least attempt to halt the push for independence in the externalities of their reach (from the British colony of India to the French in Indochina and the Dutch in Indonesia) - ultimately, we can see how various socialist and communist forces were beaten and betrayed both by their most obvious of enemies (the capitalists themselves) and the paranoid imperialism of Stalin's nation on the other. Thus the world stands today ...

[Medicinefckdream]

a lot of ppl think world war 2 was about hitler wanting to "take over the world" like some kind of supervillian. this accusation is startlingly accurate, but it was more about the desires of the disparate ruiling classes of the world vying for economic supremacy. you see, the "late" stage of capitalism calls for an uninterrupted flow of increasing amounts of capital, and the magnitude of this capital requires a global market to remain fluid. therefore this war was about who would dictate this new order, the german military aristocracy and the bourgeiosie(fascists) in europe, japanese imperialists in asia, stalin's party in the soviet union, and after the collapse of england, the capitalist class of the united states backed by its satellite nation of Britannia. my favorite sentence from this book is where the author talks about the post-ww2 rise of the united states "national security state" and its paranoid aggressive foreign policy, and how all spheres of influence not under direct us control are viewed adversarily, and how that has pretty much dictated us actions for the past like 70 years. good stuff from ernest.

[Thomas Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t say I’ve ever previously read a Marxist history of WWII - which is a shame. There are some lines in this book, written in the 1980, that are bone chilling in their prescience of what was to come once capitalism gained global hegemony following the fall of the USSR. Overall, a great and accessible book of you’re looking for an analysis of the structural forces which pushed rival empires into history’s greatest bloodletting. Only critique is that the prose itself is a little stiff and there are some passing comments throughout that betray how outdated this book is.

[Bob Reutenauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerfully written provocative slim volume by the Belgian economist Ernest Mandel, one of the most important Marxist intellectuals in post war West. Short tightly packed chapters titled like- Social Forces, Resources, Logistics, Ideology demonstrate the explanatory power of historical materialism in his hands. Somehow Mandel writes of the period WWI/WWII with an historical scope and distance that he could have been writing of the Thirty Years War in Central Europe exactly 300 years earlier. Declining colonial empires, nationalist rebellion, rising imperialist spheres of influence, rival social systems with great power and appeal, are terms that constitute frame of view. And modernity.. industrial creation and destruction. Total dehumanization of the "other" is a feature of the modern world; a necessary ingredient for the success of "New World" settler colonialism's displacement/genocide of native people and of the Enlightenment era establishment of plantation society for wealth production by enslaved Africans. The origin of Final Solution anti-semitism, Mandel suggests, is found in this our modern Atlantic world as much or more than it is a direct line from the Classical and Medieval pogroms of the Mediterranean world. This point is made in a single paragraph. Elsewhere I understand he has written on this topic. His own experiences (1922-1995) as a Jewish intellectual in mid century Europe is worth looking up in the biographical literature.

I have not been impacted by book on war like this before. In the same way that Mandel allows ones historical imagination to consider his account in terms similar to the Thirty Years War (or the Trojan War) his moral stand and critique of the "future" is implicit in the discussion of bullets, boots, radios, supply lines, aircraft, tanks, battleships, blitzkrieg, carpet bombing, atomic bombs-- all of this in the hands of the major states- in conflict over how power is held, exercised, (shared?) across the globe can only be repeated one more time. The destruction can't be imagined.

[Benjamin Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read nothing else, check out chapter three. Very inspiring history of resistance to fascism.

[Alec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master work. Mandel excoriates the myth of 'good' vs 'bad' in WWII with a thorough Marxist analysis of the conflict. Detailing the forces let loose by the greatest concentration of destruction the modern world has seen, Mandel outlines (in around 200 pages) the main themes running through the conflict as well as the major events and their significance. I would've liked to see his views on international institutions, international law, criminal prosecution of war crimes and what role these institutions have to play. This year, 2024, will be both the 80th anniversary of D-Day (already passed), and the Warsaw Uprising (coming up soon). If there's ever a time to look back and break down not only the facts of the war, but the world that has grown out of it, it's now. With destruction in Gaza and war in Ukraine raging, did we emerge from WWII any smarter than we entered it? Does the 'success' of Capitalism in the 20th Century bode well for the 21st (Plot twist...no)? Mandel does wonders with this one...highly recommended!

[Gage Hoefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delivers exactly what it promises: a historical materialist understanding of World War II. Mandel makes the argument in the last chapter that the second world war solved none of the crises of capitalism (obviously), that the "post-war boom" was only a minor period of respite from the worst of the crises, and that we are still in a position to realize even worse horrors due to the increasing instability of world affairs. The same is true 4o+ years after this was first written: we have seen how neoliberalism was the response to the revolts of the 60's and 70's, as a concerted effort from the ruling class to restore power. How long neoliberalism can continue (and we're living through the failures now) is yet to be decided; World War III is always on the table.

[Matt Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay analysis of WW2 through a Marxist lense

[Steven Blom · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.marxists.org/archive/hall...

[Sergio Sevilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Analisis muy interesante de los motores de la WWII desde una vision Marxista.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

very thought-provoking...