Jonathan Fennell – Collapse: A Global History of the Second World War, 1931-1941
20th October @ 18:00 – 19:00
Between 1931 and 1949, a series of crises broke out that threatened collective security, world order and the internal cohesion of states across the globe. At the heart of these crises was a world war that shook the foundations of global power, a watershed moment in the history of the Twentieth Century. Collapse is the first volume of an authoritative trilogy that tells the story of the Second World War through this international lens, covering theatres of war in multiple continents and analysing worldwide trends.
Combining military, political, social and economic history, Professor Jonathan Fennell explores the first part of this “long war”, from 1931-1942, through exciting new sources that explore what it really meant to live through this violent time. Using an innovative approach which explores the personal alongside the political, the global alongside the local, he shows how a world that many considered civilised collapsed into barbarity.
Through immersive storytelling and a cast of characters and communities, Collapse links the home and battle fronts and ties together the stories of great campaigns with the dramatic political and social changes of the Twentieth Century, and in doing so, transforms our understanding of this monumental conflict.
Jonathan Fennell is Professor of the History of War and Society at King’s College London, where he is Director of Research at the Defence Studies Department, Co-Director of the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War and Co-Founder and President of the international scholarly society, the Second World War Research Group. His most recent monograph, Fighting the People’s War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War, won the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History 2020, and also the Society for Army Historical Research Templer Medal.
