From June 20 - July 31, World BEYOND War will be teaching an online course on the accurate history of, and debunking myths about, the Second World War -- with an eye to preventing a (very different) third and final one.
The course is not live or set on any time schedule. The videos, graphics, text, interactive online forums, discussions, and exchanges with the facilitators are all on your schedule at whatever times of day or night you find most convenient.
The incredible lineup of facilitators, and all the details, including how to reserve your spot, are at this link.
Everyone registered for the course will receive PDF, ePub, and/or mobi (kindle) versions of David Swanson's book Leaving World War II Behind,
which will provide additional reading to those who want to go beyond
the written, video, and graphic materials provided in the course.
Here's a short excerpt from the book:
When you start talking about a major conversion to peaceful enterprises, or nuclear abolition, or the eventual abolition of militaries, you run headfirst into a surprising topic that has very little to do with the world you currently live in: WWII.
It’s not an insurmountable hurdle. It’s always there, but most minds, in my experience, can be moved to some degree in under an hour. I’d like to move more minds and to make sure the new understanding sticks. That’s where this book comes in.
This book lays out the case for why misconceptions about World War II and its relevance today should not be shaping public budgets. When less than 3% of U.S. military spending could end starvation on earth, when the choice of where to put resources shapes more lives and deaths than all the wars, it matters that we get this right.
It ought to be possible to propose returning military spending to the level of 20 years ago, without a war from 75 years ago becoming the focus of the conversation. There are far better objections and concerns that one might raise than “What about WWII?”
Is a new Hitler coming? Is a surprise recurrence of something resembling WWII likely or possible? The answer to each of those questions is no. To understand why, it may help to develop a better understanding of what World War II was, as well as to examine how much the world has changed since WWII.
My interest in World War II is not driven by a fascination with war or weaponry or history. It’s driven by my desire to discuss demilitarization without having to hear about Hitler over and over and over again. If Hitler hadn’t been such a horrible person I’d still be sick and tired of hearing about him.
This book is a moral argument, not a work of historical research. I have not successfully pursued any Freedom of Information Act requests, discovered any diaries, or cracked any codes. I will be discussing a great deal of history in the pages that follow. Some of it is very little known. Some of it runs counter to very popular misunderstandings. But virtually none of it is seriously disputed or controversial among historians. I have sought not to include anything without serious documentation, and where I am aware of any controversy over any details, I have been careful to note it. I don’t think the case against WWII as a motivation for further war funding requires anything more than facts we can all agree on. I just think those facts lead very clearly to some surprising and even disturbing conclusions.
Learn more.
World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war.
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