Leaving World War II Behind:
Webinar, June 20-July 31
David Swanson / World BEYOND War
(June 18, 2022) — Our new online course is absolutely critical to ending war and creating peace. It starts on Monday. There are still spots open. I just recorded this 2-minute video about why we’re doing it.
— David Swanson, Executive Director, World BEYOND War
From June 20 – July 31, World BEYOND War will be teaching an online course on the accurate history of, and debunking myths about, the Second World War — with an eye to preventing a (very different) third and final one.
The course is not live or set on any time schedule. The videos, graphics, text, interactive online forums, discussions, and exchanges with the facilitators are all on your schedule at whatever times of day or night you find most convenient.
Everyone registered for the course will receive PDF, ePub, and/or mobi (kindle) versions of David Swanson’s book Leaving World War II Behind, which will provide additional reading to those who want to go beyond the written, video, and graphic materials provided in the course.
This book documents the case that World War II happened in such a different world that it has little relevance to today’s foreign policy, as well as the case that US participation in WWII was not justifiable.
Specifically, WWII was not fought to rescue anyone from persecution,
was not necessary for defense,
was the most damaging and destructive event yet to occur, and
would not have happened had any one of these factors been missing:
World War I,
the manner in which WWI was ended,
US funding and arming of Nazis,
a US arms race with Japan,
US development of racial segregation,
US development of eugenics,
US development of genocide and ethnic cleansing, or
the US and British prioritization of opposing the Soviet Union at all costs.
The author corrects numerous misconceptions about the most popular and misunderstood war in western culture, in order to build a case for moving to a world beyond war.
Here’s are some comments on the book:
The course has received similar praise
“This is a book of wide synthesis and trenchant commentary. Keep it near to hand for those all-too-frequent moments when you hear someone using World War II to justify yet another horrific military adventure.”
— Nicholson Baker, author of Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization
“A mythic history surrounds ‘the Good War,’ but the truth is far more complicated than that told by Hollywood and in high school history books. Swanson demolishes the myths by amassing a huge number of facts, all carefully documented, and leaves us the true, if unpalatable but liberating, history of World War II.”
— Kent D. Shifferd, Ph.D., author of From War To Peace: A Guide To The Next Hundred Years
“If you, like me, thought that WWII was the exceptional ‘good war,’ think again. In Leaving World War II Behind, David Swanson brilliantly cuts through the myths surrounding WWII, and in the process cuts through the fog of all wars. Reading this book, I started to dream.
“What if Swanson was a regular commentator on CNN, destroying the arguments of every Pentagon pundit, Raytheon lobbyist and warhawk politician? What if Swanson was hired by Hollywood to review all war films for their accuracy? What if he could oversee the history books taught in US schools?
“We would have what the military-industrial complex most fears: a well-informed public. As we build the platform that Swanson and anti-war academics/activists deserve — and the world so needs — we can start by reading this superb book and encouraging everyone we know to read it.”
— Medea Benjamin, author/cofounder CODEPINK for Peace
“In his latest book, David Swanson passionately debunks many of the common arguments used to justify the horrific violence of World War Two. By revealing the less-than-humanitarian decision-making leading up to the United States’ involvement with the fight against the Nazi government, he demonstrates the inherent tensions behind the myth of a ‘good war.’ No one hates war more than Swanson and no one alive has devoted themselves more fully to its abolition. This book is an expression of his deep moral commitment to peace.”
— Scott J. Shapiro, Professor of Law and Philosophy at Yale Law School, Director of Yale’s Center for Law and Philosophy, coauthor of The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World’
“The proximate goal of David Swanson’s new book is to challenge the moral arguments for World War II, the war that supposedly justifies war. Its ultimate goal is to make the case for ending war once and for all. This is a brave, passionate, brilliant book, which should be read by anyone who gives a damn about humanity’s future.”
— John Horgan, science journalist and author, The End of War.
“David Swanson’s Leaving World War II Behind, could have been easily entitled leaving revisionist history behind because he shatters all the self-congratulatory distortions that justified US participation in the ‘good war’ of WWII. In systematically dismantling the moral and political reasoning of US policy-makers leading up to, during, and after the great war, Swanson reveals how little has changed with the arguments and technics elites use to mask their real intentions and win over ordinary working class people, who fight the elites’ wars, to an agenda that does not have anything to do with them.
“In a rational society, Swanson’s latest would be incorporated into the school curriculum from middle-school on. But this is not a rational or a moral society. And this is why the existence of a David Swanson is such a wonder.”
— Ajamu Baraka, contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and writer for Counterpunch.
World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war.
