Myth of the Good War: The USA in World War II

The Myth of the Good War offers a fresh, provocative and controversial look at the role of the USA in World War II. It spent four months on the nonfiction bestseller lists in Europe when it was first published in Belgium in 2000. Since then it has been translated into German, Spanish and soon French.

Historian Jacques Pauwels attacks the widely held belief that World War II was the "good war," the war in which America led the forces of democracy and freedom to victory over fascist dictatorship and Japanese militarism. He argues that the role of the USA in World War II was determined not by idealism, but by the interests of America's corporations and by the country's social, economic, and political leaders.

JACQUES R. PAUWELS has taught European history at the University of Toronto, York University, and the University of Waterloo.

"The Myth of the Good War is an accessible and well-written book... The reader feels immersed in a bath of refreshing ideas." - De Morgen