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The Hidden Victims

Civilian Casualties of the Two World Wars

Cormac Ó Gráda author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Princeton University Press

Published:29th Oct '24

Should be back in stock very soon

The Hidden Victims cover

A staggering new account of the civilian death toll of the world wars—and what it reveals about the true nature and cost of modern war

Soldiers have never been the only casualties of wars. But the armies that fought World Wars I and II killed far more civilians than soldiers as they countenanced or deliberately inflicted civilian deaths on a mass scale. By one reputable estimate, 9.7 million civilians and 9 million combatants died in World War I, while World War II killed 25.5 million civilians and 15 million combatants. But in The Hidden Victims, Cormac Ó Gráda argues that even these shocking numbers are almost certainly too low. Carefully evaluating all the evidence available, he estimates that the wars cost not 35 million but some 65 million civilian lives—nearly two-thirds of the 100 million total killed. Indeed, he shows that war-induced famines alone may have killed 30 million people, making them the single largest cause of death.

The Hidden Victims is the first book to attempt to measure and describe the full scale of civilian deaths during the world wars, from all causes, including genocide, starvation, aerial bombardment, and disease. While nations went to great lengths to record military casualties, they often didn’t count or deliberately obscured civilian deaths. Getting the numbers right is important. It reveals much about the true human costs of the wars, the nature of modern warfare, and the failure of efforts to stop civilian casualties. It also makes it possible to argue with those who try to deny, minimize, or exaggerate wartime savagery.

"First-rate. . . . This important book will make my best non-fiction of the year list."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
"A work of great moral as well as of historical importance. One of Ireland’s greatest historians scrupulously sifts the evidence from the first and second World Wars and their ‘collateral damage’ of genocide, famine, aerial bombing and disease. . . .The resonances for the present are profound: this book is a potent warning against amnesia and evasion."---Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times
"A timely publication. . . . Ó Gráda’s formidable talent as an economic historian brings us an extremely valuable and accessible work which is about more than numbers for the sake of numbers."---Laurence Marley, The Irish Times

ISBN: 9780691258751

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

520 pages