World War Two in One Week
Understand why the war happened, how it was won, and what it changed, well enough to explain it to anyone.
This course is for members
$9 unlocks every course in the library, this one included, plus a credit to build a topic of your own and at least 10 new courses every month.
What you will learn about World War II in One Week
The 7-day sprint
- Why 1939 Was Possible. The war grew out of an unstable postwar order in which defeated or dissatisfied powers rearmed while the victors of 1918 were unwilling to fight to enforce the peace.
- From European War to World War. Between 1939 and 1941 a regional German war of conquest turned into a global conflict through two decisions: Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union and Japan's attack on the United States.
- The Eastern Front Decides It. Most of the German army was destroyed by the Soviet Union, which makes the Eastern Front the center of gravity of the entire war in Europe.
- Total War and the Home Front. The war was won as much in factories, shipyards, mines, and grain fields as on battlefields, because industrial output and logistics set the limits of what armies could do.
- The Holocaust and the War Against Civilians. Nazi Germany waged a war of racial ideology in which the systematic murder of Europe's Jews was a central goal, not a byproduct of combat.
- The Pacific, the Air, and the Sea. In the Pacific and the Atlantic the war was fought for control of movement itself, and aircraft carriers, submarines, and long-range bombers made that control possible.
- Endgame and the World It Made. The way the war ended, with Soviet and Western armies meeting in the middle of a ruined Europe, produced the Cold War, the United Nations, and the collapse of Europe's overseas empires.
The 80/20: the 6 concepts that matter most
- Coalitions, not countries, fought this war
- The Eastern Front was the war's center of gravity
- Production and logistics set the ceiling on strategy
- Blitzkrieg was tempo, and tempo has limits
- Ideology shaped how the war was fought
- Control of sea and air enabled everything else
The core idea, explained like you are 5
World War Two was not decided by which side had the cleverest generals or the best tanks, but by which coalition could keep producing and delivering more of everything, for longer, across more fronts, than the other side could destroy.
Then the quiz and the ladder
10 questions that correct you when you are wrong, and beginner, intermediate, advanced levels, each with a practical exercise.