On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman talk about the middle stages of World War II when the Axis powers were ascendent and victory for Great Britain seemed bleak. They discuss whether Germany's cross channel invasion of the British Isles could have succeeded.

Maitra and Stepman talk about the sinking of the Bismark, one of the largest and greatest battleships ever built. It was ultimately stopped not by another powerful man-of-war, but by the torpedo dropped by an airplane. It was a sign that the age of the battleship was over and the age of the aircraft carrier and air power had come. Are we seeing a similar change in warfare today where the aircraft carrier has become merely an impressive, but fragile waste of resources?

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On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman talk about the initial stages of World War II, including the fall of Poland, Finland and France.

They explain the hopeless position Poland was put in and the reasons for France's quick disintegration. Maitra and Stepman also talk about how Germany's quick victories over Poland, the low countries, and France and the Soviet Union's difficulties in Finland led to Hitler's decision to launch Operation Barbarossa.

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On this week's episode of History Reconsidered, Sumantra Maitra and Jarrett Stepman talk about the United States and Great Britain on the eve of World War II. Stepman and Maitra explain the "America First" movement in the United States and why most Americans were adamantly opposed to war. Many Americans believed that involvement in the conflict would change the country forever, and it did.

Maitra makes a spirited defense of Neville Chamberlain, explaining that while the British statesman got some things wrong, he was not the "wimp" caricature that he's often been portrayed as. Stepman and Sumatra talk about why the British Empire had reason to be cautious about engaging in another great conflict with Germany and why the United States was the U.K.'s only hope of victory once the war began and France had been defeated.

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