Out of the flames of destruction, on the bodies of 55 million people, a new world order was built in 1945. The scale of the victory was such that it can seem inevitable, but as the world once more lapses into confusion and ungovernable conflict - as it did in 1939 - it is useful to ask why and how the Allies won the last great war. As Richard Overy points out in this groundbreaking book, an Allied victory was very far from preordained. By 1941, the entire resources of continental Europe were in the hands of Germany, and Japan had wiped out the Western colonial presence in Asia in a couple of months. Democracy appeared to have had its day. Overy offers a novel reinterpretation of the war through a forceful narrative of the decisive campaigns that created the astonishing reversal of fortunes for the Axis. He re-examines the war at sea; the decisive war on the Eastern Front; the air war; and the vast amphibious assualt on Europe. He then explores the deeper factors that conditioned success and failure: industrial skill, fighting ability, the intelligence of leaders, the mobilisation of civilians and the moral contrasts between the rival sides.