1942: When World War II Engulfed the Globe is a sweeping new history by University of Illinois historian Peter Fritzsche that reconstructs the single year when the Second World War became a truly planetary struggle.
Military turning points: He narrates pivotal battles—from Singapore’s fall to Stalingrad’s siege—while following U-boats littering the U.S. East Coast with debris and Japan’s rapid Pacific advances.
Home-front dramas: The text interweaves colonial uprisings, mass refugee flows, rationing regimes, and assaults on internal “enemies,” revealing the moral choices civilians faced as total war reshaped daily life.