Sons at war

In the decades since World War II, we like to think the world has moved away from the terror of Nazi Germany. While this is true in many respects, resurgent nationalism suggests that we revisit the lessons of history. In Sons at War, Jane Sweetland tells the story of two young warriors driven by love for their homelands. One is Sweetland's uncle Ted, who was born in New Jersey; the other is German-born Joachim Müncheberg. Though raised on opposite sides of the Atlantic, these young men had surprisingly similar childhoods. Their journeys diverged at the onset of World War II and then reconnected in an aerial battle above Tunisia, where they perished at each other's hands. By drawing parallels between these two men's lives, Sweetland explores the accident of birth and the corrupting power of nationalism.