A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2012 University of Illinois Press In February of 2012, the University of Illinois Press published Donald R. Hickey's The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition, an expanded and updated version of a 1992 work about the United States' second and last war with Great Britain. Based on Hickey's 15 years of studying and writing about specific topics related to this long-neglected conflict in American history, The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition is considered by many historians and literary critics to be the definitive account of "the Second War of Independence," as the three-year clash of arms was dubbed by many of its contemporary supporters. Hickey, who teaches history at Wayne State College in Nebraska, goes beyond the usual "military history" approach of other authors who focus almost exclusively on the battles on land and sea. In The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, the respected author of such books as D...

The Second World War was the largest, bloodiest conflict in history. It was fought on three of the seven continents and involved every major power of the time. Some of the combatant nations (most notably France and Italy) changed sides at least once between 1939 and 1945, and by the time Japan surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945 over 50 million men, women, and children were dead, millions more were wounded and/or uprooted, homeless, and bewildered by the war's effects. Indeed, those of us now living in the early 21st century are still living with the aftermath of World War II; many of the crises we now face can be traced to decisions made during or shortly after the war. John Keegan's The Second World War is a one-volume general history of the 1939-45 conflict, and it should be read more as an introductory text rather than a comprehensive "this-is-the-book-that-explains-the-whole-darned-thing" opus. It's too short (595 pages, not counting the bibliography or i...