Published on October 1, 2025 (Episode 426)
Introduction
In 1942, a series of regional conflicts that had begun in the 1930s—in Manchuria, Africa, China, and Europe—merged into a single global war. With Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s declaration of war on the United States, all the great powers were now engaged, and battles stretched across nearly every continent.
The early months of that year brought disaster and upheaval. The oil of ships sunk by Nazi submarines washed up on beaches from Louisiana to Nova Scotia. Japanese forces on bicycles raced down the Malaysian peninsula to capture Singapore, before pressing into Burma. German armies clashed across North Africa while Soviet forces staggered but held. Across the Pacific, Japanese armies advanced, and battles from Midway to Guadalcanal riveted the world’s attention.
But the war was not fought only at the front. It also unfolded in the purges of so-called “internal enemies,” in struggles against colonial rulers, in mass labor migrations, and in the endless columns of refugees on the move.
In his new book 1942: When World War II Engulfed the Globe, historian Peter Fritzsche offers a gripping, ground-level portrait of this decisive year. Moving from shipyards in San Francisco Bay to townships in Johannesburg to amusement parks in Singapore, Fritzsche presents a people’s war: millions bound together by promise and terror, by hope of liberation and the reality of destruction.
About the Guest
Peter Fritzsche is the W. D. & Sarah E. Trowbridge Professor of History at the University of Illinois. He is the author of eleven books, including Peter Fritzsche, Hitler’s First Hundred Days (Basic Books, 2020). His work explores the experiences of ordinary people caught up in the sweep of modern history, with particular attention to the rise of fascism and the global conflicts of the twentieth century.
For Further Investigation
Peter Fritzsche, 1942: When World War II Engulfed the Globe (Basic Books, 2025)
Peter Fritzsche, Hitler’s First Hundred Days (Basic Books, 2020)
Gerhard Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II (Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Ian Buruma, Year Zero: A History of 1945 (Penguin, 2013)
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Listen & Discuss
What does 1942 reveal about the global nature of World War II?
How do local experiences—from San Francisco to Singapore—help us grasp the war’s scope?
What does focusing on this single year change about our understanding of the war as a whole?
If you know someone fascinated by World War II (and few are not), share this episode with them.
