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.
Chapter 1. On War and the Causes of War
Chapter 2. A Thirty Years War? The Disintegration of Europe
Chapter 3. The Case Against a Thirty Years War: the Restoration of Europe
Chapter 4. History and Historians
Chapter 7. Parliamentary Democracy: France and Britain
Chapter 9. The Great Depression and International Relations
Chapter 10. Economic Problems and the Coming of War
Chapter 11. Armed Forces, Strategy, and Foreign Policy (1): France and Britain
Chapter 12. Armed Forces, Strategy, and Foreign Policy (2): Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union
Chapter 13. From Peace to the Eve of War, 1932–1937
Chapter 14. War Postponed, 1938
Chapter 15. Decisions for War, 1939
Chapter 16. The Expanding War, 1939–1940
Chapter 17. Germany and the Soviet Union, 1940–1941