World War II - Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |

World War II (1939–1945) was a global conflict resulting in 60 to 80 million deaths, triggered by the failures of the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Nazi Germany, and ineffective international appeasement. Key analyses focus on the European and Pacific theaters, total war mobilization, and the resulting shift in global power, as explored in resources from the Gilder Lehrman Institute and the Holocaust Encyclopedia .