"Missing: a social history of the war in North Africa" Topic
10 Posts
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Tango01  | 22 Feb 2021 3:38 p.m. PST |
"The war in North Africa is often seen as having taken place on the ‘perfect battlefield'. Space for maneuver, no civilians or settlements to get in the way. Histories of the war consequently focus on the events on this ‘perfect' battlefield, the to-and-fro of the tanks, and the battles in the air. This means that there is a serious gap in the historiography of the campaign that tore through Libya several times between June 1940 and January 1943. This gap is less of an issue for the Tunisian campaign. There are also other issues relating to war crimes of course, including the systemic abuse of prisoners of war, repeated bombing of military hospitals, and some at least questionable actions in the heat of battle, but these should probably be considered part of the military, rather than social history…"
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| Legion 4 | 22 Feb 2021 4:29 p.m. PST |
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| donlowry | 22 Feb 2021 5:11 p.m. PST |
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 Editor in Chief Bill  | 22 Feb 2021 5:16 p.m. PST |
I think he means to include the civilians. |
| Huscarle | 23 Feb 2021 2:51 a.m. PST |
I recollect reading in one of the recent WWII North African campaign books about the travails of the Italian (largely female) civilian population. The Arabs murdered, raped, and looted – many civvies fled to the few cities and were forced to pursue the usual desperate measures to survive. |
| Legion 4 | 23 Feb 2021 9:30 a.m. PST |
I guess that should be no surprise … |
| AndreasB | 28 Feb 2021 3:35 a.m. PST |
What is meant is indeed to address the lacking focus on the experience of civilians (both Italian settlers and the Libyan population), and also the issue of war crimes, mistreatment of POWs and the implementation of the Holocaust in Libya. We still get books talking about North Africa as a "War without Hate", and TBH that's just nonsense and we need to see this war for what it was, i.e. another instance of the genocidal enterprise that was European colonisation in general and WW2 in Europe and North Africa specifically. All the best Andreas |
| Tango01 | 28 Feb 2021 3:34 p.m. PST |
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| Legion 4 | 01 Mar 2021 2:33 a.m. PST |
Yes, there is a dark side with the battle for that region in WWII. link link |
| AndreasB | 06 Mar 2021 1:55 p.m. PST |
Yes, absolutely. There is a German academic who is doing work on this. Patrick Bernhard. A lot of his stuff is available on academia.edu All the best Andreas |
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