Bombing the City

Aaron William Moore is the Handa Chair of Japanese-Chinese Relations at the University of Edinburgh. His research has received support from the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Leverhulme Trust. In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Leverhulme Prize for his work in comparative history.

• List of figures; Acknowledgements; Note to the reader; Featured diarists; Introduction: attacking the people: democracy, populism, and modern war; 1. Give unto Moloch: family and nation in WWII; 2. The muses of war: terror, anger, and faith; 3. Romancing stone: human sacrifice and system collapse in the city; 4. Defending our way of life: gender, class, age, and other oppressions; Conclusion: victory for the people: pacifism and the ashes of the post-war era; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

'An intimate and thoroughly original breakthrough in comparative history that skillfully interweaves the diaries and recollections of ordinary British and Japanese civilians to bring alive the horrors of German and American terror bombing in World War II.' John Dower, author of Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq