PMH Bell's famous book is a comprehensive study of the period and debates surrounding the European origins of the Second World War. He approaches the subject from three different angles: describing the various explanations that have been offered for the war and the historiographical debates that have arisen from them, analysing the ideological, economic and strategic forces at work in Europe during the 1930s, and tracing the course of events from peace in 1932, via the initial outbreak of hostilities in 1939, through to the climactic German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 which marked the descent into general conflict. Written in a lucid, accessible style, this is an indispensable guide to the complex origins of the Second World War.
Author(s): P. M. H. Bell
Series: Origins Of Modern Wars
Edition: 3
Publisher: Routledge | Taylor & Francis Group
Year: 2013
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 417
Tags: World War, 1939-1945: Causes; Europe: Politics And Government: 1918-1945
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Editor’s Foreword
Acknowledgements
Publisher’s Acknowledgements
Note to the Third Edition
Abbreviations
Part One Introduction: Problems of Interpretation
1 On War and the Causes of War
2 A Thirty Years War? The Disintegration of Europe
3 The Case Against a Thirty Years War: the Restoration of Europe
4 History and Historians
Part Two The Underlying Forces
The Role of Ideology
5 Italian Fascism
6 German Nazism
7 Parliamentary Democracy: France and Britain
8 Soviet Communism Economic Issues and the Coming of War
9 The Great Depression and International Relations
10 Economic Problems and the Coming of War The Role of Strategy and Armed Force
11 Armed Forces, Strategy, and Foreign Policy (1): France and Britain
12 Armed Forces, Strategy, and Foreign Policy (2): Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union
Part Three The Coming of War, 1932–1941
Introduction
13 From Peace to the Eve of War, 1932–1937
14 War Postponed, 1938
15 Decisions for War, 1939
16 The Expanding War, 1939–1940
17 Germany and the Soviet Union, 1940–1941
Conclusion
Chronology
Who’s Who
Further Reading
Maps
Index
