Part 1: Lecture 1. The origins of the second world war -- lecture 2. Hitler's challenge to the international system, 1933-1936 -- lecture 3. The failure of the international system -- lecture 4. The coming of war -- lecture 5. Blitzkrieg -- lecture 6. The German offensive in the west -- lecture 7. "Their finest hour"--Britain alone -- lecture 8. The battle of Britain -- lecture 9. Hitler moves east -- lecture 10. The Germans before Moscow.

Part 2: Lecture 11. The war in Asia -- lecture 12. The Japanese gamble -- lecture 13. The height of Japanese power -- lecture 14. Turning the tide in the Pacific--Midway and Guadalcanal -- lecture 15. The war in north Africa -- lecture 16. War in the Mediterranean--the invasion of Sicily and Italy -- lecture 17. Stalingrad--the turning point on the eastern front -- lecture 18. Eisenhower and Operation Overlord -- lecture 19. D-Day to Paris -- lecture 20. Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge.

Part 3: Lecture 21. Advance across the Pacific -- lecture 22. Turning point in the southwest Pacific--Leyte Gulf and the Philippines -- lecture 23. The final drive for Japan--Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the fire-bombing of Tokyo -- lecture 24. War in the air -- lecture 25. Hitler's new order in Europe -- lecture 26. "This man's army" -- lecture 27. Daily life, culture, and society in wartime -- lecture 28. The race for Berlin -- lecture 29. Truman, the bomb, and the end of the war in the Pacific -- lecture 30. The costs of the war.