I found this to be a really enjoyable history of World War II. Chamberlin framed his history and larger discussion of the causes, carrying out of, and results of the Second World War within a larger framework of imperialism and colonialism. This is not a way I have generally read or thought about WWII, so it challenged me to think about the war from a different perspective. Ultimately, I would argue that was Chamberlin's goal when he sat down to write his work. Within the main text of the book I found the greatest strength to be his discussion of the Pacific Theater. He provided a ton of detail on this area of the war. Overall, this was a really excellent book that was thoroughly researched and was not lacking detail in any area. 4 stars, easy.

A great read that further illustrates the truly global nature of this horrendous conflict. Chamberlin decentralizes Europe, while still showing the interconnectedness of the global conflict through imperialism, militarism, and colonization. The text truly highlights that the motivating factors behind WWI were alive and well in WWII. Chamberlin rightly shows that the rhetoric around antifascism is something of a historically comfortable narrative that does not hold up well against the imperialist aims of all the major combatants. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan are certainly 'villains', but Chamberlin makes clear that in global conflicts, nobody's hands are entirely clean