Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 by Richard Overy

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Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 by Richard Overy

Author: Richard Overy

“Monumental… [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War II. Richard Overy has given us a powerful reminder of the horror of war and the threat posed by dictators with dreams of empire.” – TheWall Street Journal

A thought-provoking and original reassessment of World War II, from Britain’s leading military historian

A New York Times bestseller

Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its origins and aftermath. As one of Britain’s most decorated and respected World War II historians, he argues that this was the “last imperial war,” with almost a century-long lead-up of global imperial expansion, which reached its peak in the territorial ambitions of Italy, Germany and Japan in the 1930s and early 1940s, before descending into the largest and costliest war in human history and the end, after 1945, of all territorial empires.

Overy also argues for a more global perspective on the war, one that looks broader than the typical focus on military conflict between the Allied and Axis states.