This Week on History Happy Hour: A detailed look at the city of Naples during and after its liberation by the Allies in World War II. Keith Lowe is our guest this week and has written about this in his new book Naples 1944: The Devil's Paradise at War.

His book explores the corruption, and social breakdown that followed the liberation, highlighting the stark contrasts between the wealthy Allied soldiers and the starving, impoverished population. For a packet of cigarettes, even the lowest ranks could buy themselves a watch, a new suit or a woman for the night. It's a story of a city on the brink, revealing the darker aspects of postwar Italy and the unexpected consequences of war.

Keith Lowe is an award-winning author of many books including of Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II, and the critically acclaimed history Inferno: The Fiery Devastation of Hamburg, 1943. His 2017 book about the long-term, global, psychological effects of the Second World War, The Fear and the Freedom, was described by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the best, most useful books on World War II to have emerged in the past decade.” He came on History Happy Hour in 2021to discuss his book Prisoners of War: What Monuments to the Second World War Tell Us About Our History and Ourselves, and returned in 2022 to take part in a panel discussion on the war in Ukraine. Widely recognized as an authority on the Second World War, he regularly speaks on TV and radio, and has lectured at universities, conferences and literary festivals all over the world. He lives in North London with his wife and two kids.