National Overview

Both of the novels I read take place in Germany during World War 2. In this time period, England and Germany were at odds on opposite sides of the worst war the world had ever seen. There was a big push for young men to join the army and both nationalism and militarism were running high. The propaganda for the war often played on the sympathy and pride of men in order to guilt them into enlisting. Western Europe was clearly divided for the first time in a long while and everyone had forgotten how horrible war truly was. Instead there minds were filled with romantic notions of glory and national pride. As the war progressed, Germany gained a lot of blame from the rest of Europe (mainly England and France) for the destruction. France received the most damage from the war, since that's where most of the fighting took place, and, there fore was not on good grounds with Germany. Before the war began, Germany had a pretty good economic standing, but as they got deeper in, there supplies and food suffered due to their declining status. With World War 1 also came the birth of trench warfare. An especially brutal form of war in which a series of trenches is dug and both sides essentially take turns advancing and retreating. This new  type of warfare exposed many young men to horrific images and experiences that had not been a part of previous wars. It created a whole new level of brutality and forced soldiers to almost completely dehumanize in order to survive.