On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman talk about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II.

Were the bombings necessary or could the war with Japan have been resolved in a better way? Maitra and Stepman talk about the realities of an invasion of the Japanese homeland and what the would have meant for both the Allies and the Japanese people. They also talk about the differences between how World War II ended compared to many modern wars.

The episode ends with a brief exploration of the question: "Who really won World War II?"

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On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman talk about the U.S. entry into World War II after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

With the U.S. entry into the war, the conflict became global. The Allies would have significant manpower and materiel advantages that could not be matched by the Axis. Yet, wars are not won by materiel alone.

Maitra and Stepman talk about the challenges that the Allies faced, especially in coordinating strategic objectives. They also talk about how the Axis entirely failed to coordinate through the war and why that doomed their chances of winning.

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On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman talk about the middle stages of World War II when the Axis powers were ascendent and victory for Great Britain seemed bleak. They discuss whether Germany's cross channel invasion of the British Isles could have succeeded.

Maitra and Stepman talk about the sinking of the Bismark, one of the largest and greatest battleships ever built. It was ultimately stopped not by another powerful man-of-war, but by the torpedo dropped by an airplane. It was a sign that the age of the battleship was over and the age of the aircraft carrier and air power had come. Are we seeing a similar change in warfare today where the aircraft carrier has become merely an impressive, but fragile waste of resources?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.