The Road to War

by Andrew Wheatcroft and Richard Overy

Book Overview

Without resort to hindsight, this study looks at why the world's greatest powers were at war 60 years ago. It aims to recapture the concerns, anxieties and prejudices of the statesmen of the 30s and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394582608
• ISBN13: 9780394582603
• Release Date: June 1990
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

World in transition

What I find interesting in this book is that the author looks at all the main belligerents of the Second World War and studies their respective strengths and weaknesses. From what I can make out of this study is that the world was divided in the establishment powers such as Britain and France who prior to the conflict were becoming increasingly overstretched and unable to meet massive commitments overseas, a stheir resources dwindled and their determination to act decisively decreased. war was therefore the result of the challenges they faced from revisionist powers such as Germany, Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union and even to some extent, the United States of America. One interesting point which came out early in the book is that Poland, which is traditionally shown as the first victim of the Nazis and which suffered more casualties during that war than possibly any other country, is portrayed as a hardline, uncompromising and aggressive state. This explains why few countries were ready to come to the aid of Poland when she was attacked. Interestingly,the USSR comes in a more favourable light. I would consider this book a follow-up on the study by A.J.P Taylor's earlier work on the same subject. Could that war have been avoided? That's the central question which the book raised. The message that comes accross is that conflict was the only outcome possible as realtions between European States and other powers deteriorated and a new balance of power was in the offing.

brilliant

Richard Overy has done a wonderful job in explaining why and how the major powers went to war. All countries had the same intentions - to retain and/or expand their empires and to make the world into an image of theirs. In this regard I would say all the countries were just like Germany in their outlook and all the politicians were micro-Hitlers. The only difference being that Hitler took the lead and initiative in fulfilling his desires, though in a very brutal way. Had he not done so, some other country would have, maybe a few years later. Ultimately all of them stood for the same thing- colonial expansion and global control. Just because some of them were democratic does not make them any less worse.What I cannot understand is how all the politicians & statesmen refused to take Hitler seriously till it was too late. Again and again Hitler gave evidence of his intentions and again and again everyone felt that he would listen to reason. How could they have ignored all his statements and actions? How could they have misread him? Some answers are found in the last chapter - "Conclusion" which is absolutely wonderful. I would suggest that this should be read right in the beginning after the "Preface" and "Introduction" - both brilliant- as it helps clarify certain doubts/questions which arise when one reads the other chapters. One is also saddened by seeing the absolute lack of faith and trust between the Allies- a misnomer if there ever was one. Had these powers looked beyond their own selfish interests and if they had had a bit of faith in one another, we may have not witnessed this carnage.One thing I seemed to notice was that there is strong bias towards USA. Many of its (in)actions are explained and justified at length which is not so with the other countries who possibly also suffered from the same limitations. I would love to see this chapter rewritten but this is a minor flaw in this otherwise brilliant book.

Excellent Overview

This book was written as a companion to series of television documentaries on the origins of WWII. Given this background, you might expect a relatively conventional overview or 'coffee table' type of book. The principal author, however, is Richard Overy, perhaps the preeminent scholar of WWII and man who has made a career of looking at well known historical episodes from fresh points of view. Overy is also that unusual scholar who tries to, and succeeds at, writing books for both the community of scholars and the broad reading public.The goal of this book is to provide a sophisticated understanding of why the WWII occurred and to dispell myths about the actions and motivations of the major actors. The authors chose to organize this book on a country by country basis. There are excellent introductory and concluding chapters providing some overview but most of the book is dedicated to careful analysis of the politics and diplomacy of the major combatant countries. Why did WWII occur? A major cause was the unsatisfactory nature of the attempted settlement following WWI. Several of the major combatants in WWI felt aggrieved by the results of the Paris peace conferences and treaties. The desire for revision was driving force in diplomacy and internal politics for the two decades following WWI. The aggrieved parties naturally included Germany but also included the Soviet Union, Italy, and Japan. WWI inflicted terrible wounds on the powers who wished to maintain the post-WWI settlement. France's losses were grievous, and since the French economy lacked the dynamism of Germany's and her birth rate was lower, she remained in a vulnerable position. Britain withdrew from continental politics for much of the 20s. When the British did return to active participation in continental affairs, it was with a weakened economy and a depleted defense establishment. Perhaps only the active participation of the USA could have maintained the post-WWI settlement, but the USA pursued isolationist policies until the very eve of WWII. Overy and Wheatcroft provide excellent analyses of internal politics and diplomacy in each nation. Several themes emerge. The Great Depression did not cause the problems and tensions that led to WWII but horribly exacerbated them. Particularly in the democratic states, the freedom of action of leaders was sharply limited by domestic political considerations and a good deal of what is seen now commonly as the cowardice of the leadership of Britain and France was due to the demands of internal politics. The leaders of the dictatorships were less constrained and their actions tended to reflect their own preoccupations and irrational goals. Deterring or stopping the Germans would have required alliance with the Soviet Union, but this proved to particularly difficult for a variety of reasons. An unstable international system, weakness on the part of the parties interested in upholding the system, and international economic cata

Exhaustive Overview of the Road to WW2

This book, written by one of today's most reputed historians of WW2, focuses on the years immediately preceding the war. Each chapter is devoted to one of the future belligerants and describes how they perceived the approaching crisis, what their objectives were, and what choices they faced. This approach is very successful in showing how each nation saw the situation at that time, as opposed as we see it today. Although all sections are stimulating, a few are especially worth mentioning. The section on Germany makes it clear that a "readjustment" of Germany's post-WW1 eastern frontiers was inevitable and that indeed western powers themselves recognized it as inevitable. The section on Poland is very interesting and iconoclastic, balancing today's popular image of Poland as a helpless victim (which indeed she became AFTER its defeat in 1939) with a well-documented picture of an arrogant, racist state that western European states in the 30s generally despised. The chapter on England highlights the key importance that the English attributed to the Empire, and shows how Great Britain tried to defend this anachronistic creation against the revisionist powers, even in the face of its own economic decline. The book is valuable both for its convincing general arguments and for its analysis of specific issues. At the general level, the picture of the 30s that emerges is that of a world constrained by a geopolitical straitjacked that was growing increasingly inadequate. The author argues that Britain and France, who were (and clearly perceived themselved to be) the biggest beneficiaries of the status quo, tried as long as possible to defend it against appeasing the revisionist powers while preparing for the worst with rearmament. The appeasement phase bought them time mostly at the expense of countries outside their direct sphere of influence, which they abandoned to Germany and Russia. However, Britain and France finally became convinced that the Axis powers were after a more radical reshaping of the international order. This, almost by definition, implied sacrificing parts of the English and French empires themselves; this Britain and France were not willing to do, so when they got ready they declared war. The rest is known.This book makes its case very convincingly, and clearly states (the Introduction is fantastic) that the "fairy tale" version of WW2, where Britain and France are the white knights that go to war to save Europe's freedom, is ludicrous. They declared war, as every power in the history of the world has always done, in order to defend their own interests. They cared about Poland as much as they had cared about SChekoslovakia - something that the events both in september 1939 and in 1945 made abundantly clear.The book is also full of delightful smaller issues, like: antisemitism in pre-war Poland (I did not know that it was the Poles, not the Germans, who first wanted to deport Jews to Madagascar, and this well before the war); the way

Great Perspective on the "Road to War"

We all know the story: Hitler comes to power and embarks on a course of expansionism. Britain and France, Allies against Imperial Germany during the Great War, falter at first and refuse to stand up to Hitler, even sacrificing Czechoslovakia at Munich. But they finally find their courage and draw the line at Hitler's conquest of Poland, which initiates the Second World War. This book sheds quite a lot of information on the events leading up to the war, stripping them of a lot of the romantic mythology which has surrounded the war since it started. Overy turns his eye to the gritty details of the foreign policy decisions of the European powers, without boring the reader with pointless detail, and it sometimes doesn't look pretty. But real-world events are seldom pretty. The first chapter alone, "Who Will Die For Danzig?" earns the book 3 stars in my opinion. The removal of some of this romanticism does not, in my opinion, strip either the war itself or the men and women who fought the tyranny of the Axis powers of the heroism that has rightfully been attributed to it and to them. However it began, the war was a struggle against tyranny, and as such, carries with it a nobility that cannot be stripped away by something as simple as the truth.Highly recommended.