World War II, we have been told all our lives, was our greatest triumph, the moment when the forces of light - the Western democracies - prevailed over the forces of darkness - the Nazis and the other Axis powers. It was a conflict that began in Europe in September 1939 but became global only with the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan in August 1945.

Or did it?!

In this series, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson challenges nearly all our enduring assumptions about what was, without question, the most destructive conflict the planet has ever seen. The War of the World will transform fundamentally the way we think about World War II.

Episode 1: The Clash of Empires - This premiere episode, hosted by Ferguson, shows how economic volatility, ethnic conflict, and empires in crisis were the fatal ingredients of the War of the World. They spawned the twentieth century's bloody conflicts and genocide, and led to the rise of the brutal regimes of Germany, Japan, and Russia.

Episode 2: A Tainted Victory - Ferguson examines the horrors of the Second World War and shows how, in order to win, the allies had to act with the same savagery as their enemies. It was, in his words, 'a tainted victory', in which the true, ultimate winners were not those who were victorious in 1945.

Episode 3: The Icebox - In the final episode Ferguson shows how the Cold War was not a time of peace - but a continuation of the war of the world in which millions died in proxy wars. And the end of the Cold War did not bring about the end of history: it led to great new dangers and challenges, and presaged the rise of East.

Thursdays, 7/3-17/08 from 10-11 p.m. ET

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