Table of Contents

Prologue
Part I. Retreat from Internationalism, 1933-1938
1: Brown Dawn: The Rise of Hitler and the Death of Disarmament, 1933-1934
2: Uncertain Embraces: The European Powers and Nazi Germany, 1934-1935
3: The Assault on Versailles and Locarno: Ethiopia and the occupation of the Rhineland
4: The Remnants of Internationalism, 1936-1938
5: The Spanish Cockpit, 1935-1938
6: Rearmament and Appeasement 1936-1937
7: Appeasement Advances, 1937-1938
8: Illusions of Neutrality: Eastern Europe, 1936-1938
9: Whither the Soviet Union? Moscow and the West, 1936-1938
10: Thunder from the East: The Sino-Japanese Conflict and the European Powers, 1933-1938
11: Hitler Moves: Austria and Czechoslovakia, 1938
12: The Munich Settlement
Part II. The Road to Hitler's War, 1938-1939
13: The Fog of Peace: Strategic Choices after Munich
14: Black Sun: Aggression and Deterrence
15: Darkening Skies: Peace Talking and War Planning in Britain and France
16: Unleashing the Dogs of War
17: Red Clouds: The Soviet Union and the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939
18: Escape from War or Persecution? The Smaller Powers and the Jews
19: The Nightmare of the Dark: The Decisions for War
Conclusion

About the Author

Zara Steiner is Emeritus Fellow, New Hall, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Reviews

A terrifically good read...a definitive account, the distillation of a lifetime's dedicated scholarship... No short review can do justice to the book's riches.
*Piers Brendon, The Independent*

A gigantic work of synthesis ... a staggering achievement.
*Alex Danchev, Literary Review*

Magisterial...a magnificent work of scholarship, narrative, and authoritative historical judgment.
*Richard J. Evans, The New Republic*

Magisterial...Anyone who works on the 1930s will be permanently in Steiner's debt...Zara Steiner's account of this troubled decade is fuller and richer than any yet published.
*Richard Overy, Times Literary Supplement*

A remarkable achievement of conscientious scholarship.
*Vernon Bogdanor, New Statesman*

A modern classic...magnificent... Authoritative and absorbing, Steiners volume will stand the test of time.
*Joe Maiolo, BBC History Magazine*

One of those masterpieces of exact scholarship, conceived on a vast scale, which will remain the standard work on the subject for many years.
*Jonathan Sumption, The Spectator*

A landmark event...Steiner's two volumes will undoubtedly become a standard work of reference for the two decades between the world wars...magisterial...a triumph...a magnificent achievement... A distillation of a lifetime of fine scholarship, this is an invaluable account of one dimension of these complex and fateful years.
*Britain and the World*

A superbly wrought history and a major contribution to the field. It is a mammoth work filled to the brim with prodigious scholarship
*Patrick Porter, History Today*

Definitive...the most thorough, wide-ranging and carefully argued narrative available on the tumultuous decade that ended in world war. Every historian of the period will stand in Steiner's debt.
*Richard Overy, Wall Street Journal*

Zara Steiner has written a beautifully crafted and persistently intelligent survey of Europes descent in the 1930s into war and barbarism.
*Harold James, International Affairs*

... an impressive history of a still controversial subject. It is a prodigious work, reflecting great industry and mastery of Western scholarship on the 1930s.
*American Historical Review*

This book is monumental ... a remarkable achievement by Zara Steiner
*Talbot Imlay, English Historical Review*

a truly magnificent achievement ... a triumph of historical writing and an exemplar for all historians.
*Keith Neilson, War In History*