Prisoner Taking and Prisoner Killing in the Age of Total War: Towards a Political Economy of Military Defeat

@article{Ferguson2004PrisonerTA,
  title={Prisoner Taking and Prisoner Killing in the Age of Total War: Towards a Political Economy of Military Defeat},
  author={Niall D. Ferguson},
  journal={War in History},
  year={2004},
  volume={11},
  pages={148 - 192}
}
Compared with the First World War, which ended quite quickly once the position of Germany became strategically hopeless, the Second World War proved exceedingly difficult to end even after the overwhelming economic advantage of the Allied powers had turned the strategic tide decisively against the Axis. Both German and Japanese forces continued to fight tenaciously long after any realistic chance of victory had disappeared. Part of the explanation lies in the extremely violent battlefield… Expand
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