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The Road to War
A fascinating chronicle of the prelude to war focuses on Europe's reticence to stop Hitler, the communications gap throughout the continent, and the effects of events in the USSR and the Far East on European affairs. Reprint.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Richard Overy
154 books361 followersRichard James Overy is a British historian who has published extensively on the history of World War II and the Third Reich.
Educated at Caius College, Cambridge and awarded a research fellowship at Churchill College, Professor Overy taught history at Cambridge from 1972 to 1979, as a fellow of Queens' College and from 1976 as a university assistant lecturer. In 1980 he moved to King's College London, where he became professor of modern history in 1994. He was appointed to a professorship at the University of Exeter in 2004.
His work on World War II has been praised as "highly effective in the ruthless dispelling of myths" (A. J. P. Taylor), "original and important" (New York Review of Books) and "at the cutting edge" (Times Literary Supplement.)[
Educated at Caius College, Cambridge and awarded a research fellowship at Churchill College, Professor Overy taught history at Cambridge from 1972 to 1979, as a fellow of Queens' College and from 1976 as a university assistant lecturer. In 1980 he moved to King's College London, where he became professor of modern history in 1994. He was appointed to a professorship at the University of Exeter in 2004.
His work on World War II has been praised as "highly effective in the ruthless dispelling of myths" (A. J. P. Taylor), "original and important" (New York Review of Books) and "at the cutting edge" (Times Literary Supplement.)[
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 10, 2014
In October, 1939, these were Hitler's words, regarding France and Great Britain.
"Why do they fight, they have nothing to gain? They have no definite objectives. We want nothing from Great Britain or France. I have not a single aspiration in the west. I want England to retain her Empire and her command of the seas unimpaired. But I must have the continent. A new age is dawning in Europe. England's control over the mainland of Europe has had its day. It is over now".
Hitler had believed the the Allies would do nothing when he invaded Poland, just as they had done in the Munich Agreement when Czechoslovakia was involved. He intended that the Poland situation would be a localized war and was really not ready to fight on a larger scale until 1942-43 but he underestimated his enemies. That was his first mistake and then he made two more major errors.....invading Russia and declaring war on the US after Pearl Harbor.
This book tells a pretty unbiased history of the inter-war time and what caused the world to creep slowly toward WWII. It is well done with only a few sections that are a bit pedantic...but overall, I would recommend it for the reader curious about the various causes of WWII.
"Why do they fight, they have nothing to gain? They have no definite objectives. We want nothing from Great Britain or France. I have not a single aspiration in the west. I want England to retain her Empire and her command of the seas unimpaired. But I must have the continent. A new age is dawning in Europe. England's control over the mainland of Europe has had its day. It is over now".
Hitler had believed the the Allies would do nothing when he invaded Poland, just as they had done in the Munich Agreement when Czechoslovakia was involved. He intended that the Poland situation would be a localized war and was really not ready to fight on a larger scale until 1942-43 but he underestimated his enemies. That was his first mistake and then he made two more major errors.....invading Russia and declaring war on the US after Pearl Harbor.
This book tells a pretty unbiased history of the inter-war time and what caused the world to creep slowly toward WWII. It is well done with only a few sections that are a bit pedantic...but overall, I would recommend it for the reader curious about the various causes of WWII.
January 26, 2015
The Road to War is an in-depth analysis of the major players of WWII (Great Britain, Germany, United States, Japan, France, Russia, and Italy) during the period from the end of WWI up to Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. It examines the mood and political thinking of each countries leaders and citizens and how that shaped the path to war. By allowing us to feel the pulse of the times, we're able to understand how complex a situation it really was for the nations leaders. Once again, it proves that hind sight really is 20/20 and that it wasn't a luxury the leaders had while the Axis were gearing up for war. Intelligence gathering was in its infancy. There were no spy satellites or phone tapping and reconnaissance was very primitive. Overy does a nice job opening our eyes to this and much, much more. While The Road to War was an informative read, it wasn't an entertaining read. Overy hashed and re-hashed many of the points over and over making the book very tedious to get through in places. He also tends to be a bit biased in places. His contempt for the French is blatant and obvious, while giving Germany and the Nazi regime more of a free pass than I'm used to reading. All in all, the book has some good information and insight and is worth the read as long as you know you have to sift through the regurgitation.
December 23, 2010
After World War I, an independent Poland was created. The new nation needed access to the sea in order to carry out international trade; however, the Polish-majority section of the Baltic coast did not have any ports. Therefore, the victors of World War I detached the German-majority port city of Danzig from Germany, and made it a protectorate of the League of Nation, administered by a Swiss historian. Citizens of Danzig wanted to rejoin Germany, as the Poles did not trust the special status of their city anyway: they were building a new port in the former fishing village of Gdynia, which would be under Poland's full control, and each year more of Poland's trade went through it. The Nazi Party opened a branch in the city, and won the majority of seats in the city council. As Germany was rising from her knees, she demanded that Poland acquiesce to the German annexation of the city, and allow an extraterritorial autobahn and a railroad to be constructed between the exclave of East Prussia and the rest of Germany through Poland. Poland interpreted this as the first step towards the destruction of her independence; a German annexation of Danzig meant war, in which she would be supported by Britain and France. This is what happened; what the Polish government didn't anticipate is how quickly their country's army would collapse, and that Britain's and France's war would be phony at first. This book traces how seven nation drifted to war. Germany was seeking to undo the humiliation visited upon her after World War I. France was seeking to arrest her decline from Great Power status. Britain was seeking to preserve her empire. Italy was seeking to create an African and Balkan empire. Japan was seeking to create an empire in Asia to rival Britain's, which would supply her with the natural resources the archipelago lacked. The United States was trying to stay neutral in the coming world war. The Soviet Union knew that sooner or later she would have to fight a war with the capitalist countries, and drew little distinction between capitalist democracies and capitalist fascist dictatorships. She was not above imperialism: in addition to the annexation of the Baltic countries and Eastern Poland and the unsuccessful annexation of Finland, the Soviet Union proposed to Germany to join the Axis in return for a protectorate over Bulgaria, a military base at the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, and special rights south of Baku and Batum; Germany refused. Britain in turn made plans to bomb the oil refineries in Baku and Batum from airbases in India and the Middle East, should the Soviet Union join the war on Germany's side; the plans were leaked. By 1939-1941 all this combined to launch a world war even more horrible than the first one. 7 years later at a high society wedding in Britain, an MP remarked to a lady, pointing at the guests whose life was returning to normalcy, "This is what we have been fighting for." The lady retorted, "What? Are they all Poles?" It would have been even more poignant if she had said, "What? Are they all Nazi Danzigers who should not be allowed to rejoin Germany?
May 13, 2015
This is the best book you will ever read on the "resumption" of the "Thirty Years' War" in 1939. The book devotes one chapter to each of the main nations involved in the order in which they entered the war. By examining the social, economic and political conditions in each, one understands their actions or lack thereof. Introduction (Poland, Danzig and the Polish Corridor) followed by chapters on Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Japan, and United States.
After the Armistice of November 1918, German expected a negotiated peace treaty. Instead it was hit with the 19th century, vindictive Treaty of Versailles, the contents of which were driven primarily by France who wanted to ensure they were never invaded by Germany again. This left a Germany itching for revenge even before Hitler's rise to power.
Chamberlain's role in preparing Britain for war was far more positive than conventional history makes it out to be. He fully understood the dangers of Hitler's Germany from the very beginning and set out to rearm Britain. However Britain was exhausted both financially and socially from the war. No-one wanted war and the economy was in danger of collapse after 1929. Chamberlain had to walk a fine line in rearming Britain, choosing to rebuild the arms infrastructure first - factories, training etc,. rather than build a great many weapons which might be obsolete when war came (eg bi-planes).
France and Britian almost went to war with Germany in 1938 over Czechoslovakia, threatening Hitler if he used force to annex any part of it. Instead the Munich conference for which Chamberlain is so roundly condemned, persuaded the Czechs to give up control over Sudetenland peacefully. Chamberlain knew appeasement was not likely to work and Hitler confirmed it by taking the rest of the country later in the year. But it bought time for Britain. The guarantee with Poland had less to do with British interest in Poland (none) than drawing a firm line in eastern Europe against further territorial aggression by the Nazis.
For "the rest of the story", please read this excellent book by Richard Overy and Andrew Wheatcroft. I have read other books by these authors and highly recommend them.
After the Armistice of November 1918, German expected a negotiated peace treaty. Instead it was hit with the 19th century, vindictive Treaty of Versailles, the contents of which were driven primarily by France who wanted to ensure they were never invaded by Germany again. This left a Germany itching for revenge even before Hitler's rise to power.
Chamberlain's role in preparing Britain for war was far more positive than conventional history makes it out to be. He fully understood the dangers of Hitler's Germany from the very beginning and set out to rearm Britain. However Britain was exhausted both financially and socially from the war. No-one wanted war and the economy was in danger of collapse after 1929. Chamberlain had to walk a fine line in rearming Britain, choosing to rebuild the arms infrastructure first - factories, training etc,. rather than build a great many weapons which might be obsolete when war came (eg bi-planes).
France and Britian almost went to war with Germany in 1938 over Czechoslovakia, threatening Hitler if he used force to annex any part of it. Instead the Munich conference for which Chamberlain is so roundly condemned, persuaded the Czechs to give up control over Sudetenland peacefully. Chamberlain knew appeasement was not likely to work and Hitler confirmed it by taking the rest of the country later in the year. But it bought time for Britain. The guarantee with Poland had less to do with British interest in Poland (none) than drawing a firm line in eastern Europe against further territorial aggression by the Nazis.
For "the rest of the story", please read this excellent book by Richard Overy and Andrew Wheatcroft. I have read other books by these authors and highly recommend them.
August 18, 2012
Note: This is a review for the 3rd edition
****
Of course most people have heard of World War I and World War II. But what happened in the 20 years between them? How did WWII really come about? I'd just finished reading Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, a book about the peace conference of 1919 in - you guessed it - Paris, France. It was during this conference that the victor countries of World War I decided what to do about Germany and the collapsed Austro-Hungarian & Ottoman empires. That book was a real gem and I recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of World War I and its aftermath.
But let me get to the review of Richard Overy's Road To War, which is what you really want to read about...
This book basically picks up where MacMillan's book ended. It presents, in turn, the 7 main players of World War II, in the order in which they entered the war: Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, The Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States. It covers each country's progression (or regression, depending on your point of view), from 1919 until their entry into the war.
What I found really interesting about this book was its accessibility and the logical way the information is conveyed to the reader, chronologically by country, as opposed to simply chronologically. What stuck with me the most, was that none of them *really* wanted to go to war - at least not yet. They just were not ready... at least not as ready as they would've liked. Which means that WWII would've happened anyway, just a few years later.
Just as MacMillan's book was essential in understanding the aftermath of WWI, it also established the real starting point of the road to WWII. It only took 20 years for the world to go to war again and this book does a great job of helping us understand how we got there. Understanding the root of the conflict, is just as important to me as the conflict itself. Perhaps more so.
****
Of course most people have heard of World War I and World War II. But what happened in the 20 years between them? How did WWII really come about? I'd just finished reading Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, a book about the peace conference of 1919 in - you guessed it - Paris, France. It was during this conference that the victor countries of World War I decided what to do about Germany and the collapsed Austro-Hungarian & Ottoman empires. That book was a real gem and I recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of World War I and its aftermath.
But let me get to the review of Richard Overy's Road To War, which is what you really want to read about...
This book basically picks up where MacMillan's book ended. It presents, in turn, the 7 main players of World War II, in the order in which they entered the war: Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, The Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States. It covers each country's progression (or regression, depending on your point of view), from 1919 until their entry into the war.
What I found really interesting about this book was its accessibility and the logical way the information is conveyed to the reader, chronologically by country, as opposed to simply chronologically. What stuck with me the most, was that none of them *really* wanted to go to war - at least not yet. They just were not ready... at least not as ready as they would've liked. Which means that WWII would've happened anyway, just a few years later.
Just as MacMillan's book was essential in understanding the aftermath of WWI, it also established the real starting point of the road to WWII. It only took 20 years for the world to go to war again and this book does a great job of helping us understand how we got there. Understanding the root of the conflict, is just as important to me as the conflict itself. Perhaps more so.
October 24, 2019
There is no other work that combines accessibility and scholarship so well.
September 17, 2017
The Interwar period is a complex and interesting time in world history as it encompasses many different perspectives, initiatives, and misunderstandings. After experiencing the first global war, the various nations involved sought to avoid another calamity while going through significant changes. These changes were felt across many different areas including economics, foreign policy, domestic turmoil, nationalism, isolationism, internationalism, fascism, racism, militarization, appeasement, imperial sustainability, hegemony, and balance of power alliances. The irony and tragedy is that these efforts led to a war that was more devastating and intense than the first Great War.
Richard Overy examines the policies, outlooks, and initiatives that drove the world to destruction in The Road to War. Overy examines the main players in this period through the lenses of their domestic politics and international relations. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the following nations: Germany, Britain, France, Italy, The Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States. Each of these small narratives come together to form a larger picture of fractured alliances and misunderstood intentions. The image that came to my mind is a glass globe that is struck once with a hammer. The larger pieces of the broken sphere represent the areas of interest of those seven nations while the smaller bits are the contentious regions that were contested over between the world wars.
The Road to War does some things quite well. For instance, Overy's treatment of "appeasement" is a realistic and rational approach that does not fall into the trap of hindsight. The reader becomes acquainted with the realities of a rising adversary within the context of a recent and devastating war. This approach to appeasement (of which isolationism is of a similar vein) is not an apologetic look but rather incorporates the larger argument that nations cannot always afford to go to war at the drop of a hat. Armies, navies, and air forces require time and resources to build up when presented with a new danger. The trick is to schedule an adequate timeline to meet the growing threat without going broke or yielding too few armaments.
Overy, however, does pull some punches. His treatment of the Soviet Union and the United States leave considerations for those who are familiar with other historiographies. A lot of brutality was left out of Overy's treatment of collectivization and The Great Terror along with an adequate representation of FDR's political prowess. To be fair, these are the breaks when examining each country in 40 page chapters. However this should not be the reader's only insight in all of the above mentioned nations' Interwar history.
Well written and concisely organized, Richard Overy's The Road to War is a great resource for bridging the gap between the Great War and World War II. In addition to useful history, the reader will gain an understanding of the complexities and difficulties that diplomats, leaders, and military commanders face when interacting with other states. The strengths and weaknesses of collective alliances and nationalistic agendas are expertly illustrated in this book.
Richard Overy examines the policies, outlooks, and initiatives that drove the world to destruction in The Road to War. Overy examines the main players in this period through the lenses of their domestic politics and international relations. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the following nations: Germany, Britain, France, Italy, The Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States. Each of these small narratives come together to form a larger picture of fractured alliances and misunderstood intentions. The image that came to my mind is a glass globe that is struck once with a hammer. The larger pieces of the broken sphere represent the areas of interest of those seven nations while the smaller bits are the contentious regions that were contested over between the world wars.
The Road to War does some things quite well. For instance, Overy's treatment of "appeasement" is a realistic and rational approach that does not fall into the trap of hindsight. The reader becomes acquainted with the realities of a rising adversary within the context of a recent and devastating war. This approach to appeasement (of which isolationism is of a similar vein) is not an apologetic look but rather incorporates the larger argument that nations cannot always afford to go to war at the drop of a hat. Armies, navies, and air forces require time and resources to build up when presented with a new danger. The trick is to schedule an adequate timeline to meet the growing threat without going broke or yielding too few armaments.
Overy, however, does pull some punches. His treatment of the Soviet Union and the United States leave considerations for those who are familiar with other historiographies. A lot of brutality was left out of Overy's treatment of collectivization and The Great Terror along with an adequate representation of FDR's political prowess. To be fair, these are the breaks when examining each country in 40 page chapters. However this should not be the reader's only insight in all of the above mentioned nations' Interwar history.
Well written and concisely organized, Richard Overy's The Road to War is a great resource for bridging the gap between the Great War and World War II. In addition to useful history, the reader will gain an understanding of the complexities and difficulties that diplomats, leaders, and military commanders face when interacting with other states. The strengths and weaknesses of collective alliances and nationalistic agendas are expertly illustrated in this book.
January 23, 2024
The best yield per time invested on any WWII book I've read.
The authors analyze the psychological state and patterns, and political context of the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan and the USA, explaining how economics and social problems at home, military preparation timelines and costs, and, critically, a misunderstanding of their foreign counterparts' decision making criteria led to WWII.
Popular conceptions are turned on their heads. For instance it's commonly thought that Chamberlain pursued the appeasement strategy in the 30s because he was too naïve to see through Hitler's bad faith negotiations tactics and/or was too weak to act more forcefully. The authors explain that Chamberlain knew by 1936 that war with Germany was inevitable and was already rearming accordingly, but timelines related to rearmament, the forging of alliances with France (and wishfully the Soviets), and the formation of public opinion supportive of military intervention made it impossible to contain Hitler that early. So he was biding his time.
Broad in scope but effectively synthesized, this book provides a coherent explanation for the causes of WWII, framed as the manifestation of the otherwise inevitable decline of the imperial world order of the late 19th century, which only paused in the brief peace after WWI.
The authors analyze the psychological state and patterns, and political context of the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan and the USA, explaining how economics and social problems at home, military preparation timelines and costs, and, critically, a misunderstanding of their foreign counterparts' decision making criteria led to WWII.
Popular conceptions are turned on their heads. For instance it's commonly thought that Chamberlain pursued the appeasement strategy in the 30s because he was too naïve to see through Hitler's bad faith negotiations tactics and/or was too weak to act more forcefully. The authors explain that Chamberlain knew by 1936 that war with Germany was inevitable and was already rearming accordingly, but timelines related to rearmament, the forging of alliances with France (and wishfully the Soviets), and the formation of public opinion supportive of military intervention made it impossible to contain Hitler that early. So he was biding his time.
Broad in scope but effectively synthesized, this book provides a coherent explanation for the causes of WWII, framed as the manifestation of the otherwise inevitable decline of the imperial world order of the late 19th century, which only paused in the brief peace after WWI.
July 30, 2018
This book is very nice in approach as for changes it does not discuss the origins of WO2 in chronological order but by country. Overy takes its time to explain for the key players what the pros and cons were for every country to get into the war or to stay out. Highly illuminating but perhaps not for starters of WO2. Make sure they are familiar with the road to WO2 first, the chronology and the key events and then read this book for additional information and background.
May 9, 2020
Overall ths author covered the pre war affairs quite well but it looks like that the other has given too much of the cusion to the americans. According to the other the USA was selling and prod advance weaponry but on the contrary their own military was weak which they built in a few month. Besides that it was a good book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2022
This is an interesting, if hardly speedy, introduction to the coming of WWII. It explains what happened by looking at how each of the major countries moved towards war (and to the surprise of no one Japan comes off as least logical). Nothing ground breaking, but full of good analysis and solid conclusions.
March 5, 2021
A look at each country (Germany, France, Italy, UK, USSR, Japan, US) as the decisions were made that led to entry in WWII. Nothing wrong with it per se. Just kind of unexciting.
Read
August 30, 2021Mr Jonnnn if you see this just know i still keep these books in my library to show off
September 7, 2025
book on appeasement in the 30's from the perspective of the countries involved in the second world war. read for coursework.
December 4, 2019
An excellent summary of the various combatant nations on the road to the Second World War.
20 years after a first major blood-letting, why did Europeans again willing troop into battle? Why did the Second World War occur? This is one of the most basic yet complex questions to answer about the entire affair. Beginning with an overview of the Danzig Crisis of 1939 and the start of the war with Poland, the book is divided neatly into chapters looking at all the major players arranged chronologically as they entered the war (Germany, Britain, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States) with a concluding chapter drawing together the themes from across the book. Originally written by Richard Overy and Andrew Wheatcroft in 1989, this work certainly does not provide the final word on this topic, but I would argue that its value today comes from its use as a time-capsule of views on the war at a critical historical junction. 1989 is a doubly important year for the publication as it was, on the one hand, the 50 anniversary of the start of the war (the book was originally written as a companion volume to a major BBC documentary series released that year), as well as being the beginning of the end of the Cold War; a time when many sources now available in Eastern Europe and from former-Soviet archives yet remained closed to historians. Reading the book today, The Road to War stands out as a good example of where scholarship rested at this point in history.
Richard Overy, a respected British historian now at the University of Exeter and author of numerous books on WWII (such as 1939: Countdown to War and Why the Allies Won) along with Andrew Wheatcroft (who pens the chapter on Japan and co-authors that on Italy) have overall done an excellent job at trying to synthesize a large body of research on each nation, examining their motivations and domestic problems, and writing a coherent narrative for each. Naturally, in such a process, many things are left out: the more stable years of the 1920s are generally ignored for greater focus on the 1930s and beyond the main political leaders (Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, etc.) many key personalities are mentioned only in passing. The results, at times, can thus appear somewhat deterministic; that the war was just fated to happen at some point. This was certainly not Overy and Wheatcroft's intention (their final chapter examining the mentalities of the combatants going into the war makes this clear) but it is a limitation with the framing of the book that this is "the road to war".
Regardless, the book is written in crisp accessible prose, is well sourced, and I personally found it to be a page turner. 5 stars.
20 years after a first major blood-letting, why did Europeans again willing troop into battle? Why did the Second World War occur? This is one of the most basic yet complex questions to answer about the entire affair. Beginning with an overview of the Danzig Crisis of 1939 and the start of the war with Poland, the book is divided neatly into chapters looking at all the major players arranged chronologically as they entered the war (Germany, Britain, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States) with a concluding chapter drawing together the themes from across the book. Originally written by Richard Overy and Andrew Wheatcroft in 1989, this work certainly does not provide the final word on this topic, but I would argue that its value today comes from its use as a time-capsule of views on the war at a critical historical junction. 1989 is a doubly important year for the publication as it was, on the one hand, the 50 anniversary of the start of the war (the book was originally written as a companion volume to a major BBC documentary series released that year), as well as being the beginning of the end of the Cold War; a time when many sources now available in Eastern Europe and from former-Soviet archives yet remained closed to historians. Reading the book today, The Road to War stands out as a good example of where scholarship rested at this point in history.
Richard Overy, a respected British historian now at the University of Exeter and author of numerous books on WWII (such as 1939: Countdown to War and Why the Allies Won) along with Andrew Wheatcroft (who pens the chapter on Japan and co-authors that on Italy) have overall done an excellent job at trying to synthesize a large body of research on each nation, examining their motivations and domestic problems, and writing a coherent narrative for each. Naturally, in such a process, many things are left out: the more stable years of the 1920s are generally ignored for greater focus on the 1930s and beyond the main political leaders (Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, etc.) many key personalities are mentioned only in passing. The results, at times, can thus appear somewhat deterministic; that the war was just fated to happen at some point. This was certainly not Overy and Wheatcroft's intention (their final chapter examining the mentalities of the combatants going into the war makes this clear) but it is a limitation with the framing of the book that this is "the road to war".
Regardless, the book is written in crisp accessible prose, is well sourced, and I personally found it to be a page turner. 5 stars.
February 20, 2016
"The Road to War" is an excellent review of what led the world's major powers back into conflict just 20 years after ending what had been called the "war to end all wars." Richard Overy does a solid job of presenting each nation (Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan and the United States) individually, showcasing each country's hopes and fears as the Second World War drew closer. He takes the reader back to the uncertain years of the 1920s and 1930s, and shows how a lack of communication, conflicting national interests, and opposing views of the "world order" inexorably built up until war was inevitable. My only wish is that he would have focused more on the civil wars in Spain and China, which are mentioned only briefly here, as both had a decisive impact on the way World War II took shape. That aside, "The Road to War" is an enjoyable read and a recommended book for anyone who is interested in the origins of WW2.
June 24, 2007
This book was written as a companion to a BBC documentary series of the same name and with the intent to challenge the traditional historical view of British and French appeasement as the great shame leading to the onset of World War II. The author refers to the scholarship of A.J.P. Taylor as being the only major work that challenges these scholarly and popular assumptions about the cause of WWII and states his desire to similarly pose a different view of accepted history.
Primary documents of the era are consulted in an effort to create as firsthand a picture as possible, without allowing the benefit of hindsight to colour the opinions found in those documents. Overy crafts his book from the viewpoint of what the European powers knew at the time instead of from the viewpoint of the contemporary historian.
Primary documents of the era are consulted in an effort to create as firsthand a picture as possible, without allowing the benefit of hindsight to colour the opinions found in those documents. Overy crafts his book from the viewpoint of what the European powers knew at the time instead of from the viewpoint of the contemporary historian.
September 18, 2016
As the title states this book traces the events between the world wars that led to WWII. The author has a chapter dedicated to the main countries involved in the road to war. These countries are Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, USSR, and the United States. Each country is discussed according to social problems, effects of the depression, foreign policy goals and reactions to the Versailles Treaty. Each country is examined in detail as to how all these issues effected their actions on the world scene and drew each into the war.
March 2, 2011
Absolutely historically inacurate, starting with the third sentence in the book. The author may be a credible source, however his books lack any credibility at all in terms of historical accuracy. He also frequently sides with German idealisms in the book, saying that WW2 was not the German's fault. Completely a waste of time and effort. The wording is pretty good, however. That is the only reason why it gets a 2.
October 22, 2012
CompThe authors carefully examine the actual situation facing the nations invloved in the outbreak of WWII, without considering what happened later, since the decision makers in the run-up to war did not have knowledge of the future. Many of the actions that we now consider foolish seemed to be rational at the time. I read the original 1989 edition, but the reader may wish to look at the revised edition, which was published after Soviet and East German archives were made available.
January 3, 2010
Explores each major country's actions and priorities during in the decades leading up to the outbreak of World war 2. We all know what happened next, but here you each chapter is written as if you don't know. Impressive.
April 28, 2025
o boże wreszcie skończyłam
i love history hl
/ First Re-read: this book is singlehandedly saving me on paper one
i love history hl
/ First Re-read: this book is singlehandedly saving me on paper one
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews