Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Latest 100 | LSE Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf
Episode: The hidden victims: civilian casualties of the two world wars
Description: Contributor(s): Professor Cormac Ó Gráda | In his latest book, which forms the basis of this lecture, Cormac O'Grada argues that previous estimates of civilian deaths in the two world wars are almost certainly too low.
By carefully evaluating the available evidence, he estimates that these wars cost not the 35 million lives commonly agreed on but, in reality, 65 million lives - nearly two thirds of the 100 million total killed. O'Grada's book is the first to attempt to measure and describe the full scale of civilian deaths from all causes including genocide, starvation, aerial bombardment and disease. As he shows, getting th...