On February 15, 1945, George Orwell went to Germany as a war correspondent in order to describe life in devastated Europe firsthand. For the first time, his vivid and profound notes from the 1940s are presented—notes devoted to the Second World War, its consequences, and the values that mattered.
War was at the center of his radio and newspaper broadcasts starting from his participation in battles against the Francoists in Spain in 1936–1937. In 1944, German bombs destroyed Orwell’s home where his family lived, sharpening his personal feelings about the war.
Nevertheless, in his essays he focuses on finding ways to overcome the aftermath of total war and division—thinking about the future. The book includes 25 of his works, among them the well-known articles “On Revenge Killings,” “Revenge Is Disgusting,” and a review of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”