World War Two

The history of World War Two is large, complex and difficult to fully comprehend.  The maps, statistics and timeline of battles tell the story of the war, but do not convey how people experienced and participated in the war.  It is hard to develop a full understanding of the war without seeing the way the war impacted people’ lives and affected their actions.  The process of microhistory approaches the historical study of large events by studying individuals and small groups, specific small scale events or particular historic artifacts and using the insights revealed from these studies to gain an insight into the larger event.  Examples of the microhistory approach to World War Two include:

• How the rise of Hiter and the Nazis affected one town in Germany.

• The experience of Soviet women bomber pilots in the war.

• The experience of a group of Jewish people fighting the Nazi Germans in Belarus.

• How the American army jeep became the favorite vehicle of the Soviet army.