World War II stands as the most destructive event in human history. Among its devastating innovations was the widespread use of strategic bombing—the deployment of aircraft to strike civilian targets. At the war's beginning, all sides rejected using air power to target civilians directly. By the war's conclusion, however, every belligerent had incorporated some form of strategic bombing against civilian sites as a key element of their military strategy.

Christopher Hamner, an associate professor of history at George Mason University, examines the technology, strategy, philosophy, and moral implications of strategic air power. Drawing on primary sources and firsthand observations from the war years, he covers pivotal events, including the German bombing of Guernica; the London Blitz; the Allies’ Combined Bomber Offensive in Europe; the Allied raid on Dresden; the firebombing of Japan; and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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