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Review
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 )
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 )
Product Description
In this magisterial narrative, Zara Steiner traces the twisted road to war that began with Hitler's assumption of power in Germany. Covering a wide geographical canvas, from America to the Far East, Steiner provides an indispensable reassessment of the most disputed events of these tumultuous years. Steiner underlines the far-reaching consequences of the Great Depression, which shifted the initiative in international affairs from those who upheld the status quo to those who were intent on destroying it. In Europe, the l930s were Hitler's years. He moved the major chess pieces on the board, forcing the others to respond. From the start, Steiner argues, he intended war, and he repeatedly gambled on Germany's future to acquire the necessary resources to fulfil his continental ambitions. Only war could have stopped him-an unwelcome message for most of Europe. Misperception, miscomprehension, and misjudgment on the part of the other Great Powers leaders opened the way for Hitler's repeated diplomatic successes. It is ideology that distinguished the Hitler era from previous struggles for the mastery of Europe. Ideological presumptions created false images and raised barriers to understanding that even good intelligence could not penetrate. Only when the leaders of Britain and France realized the scale of Hitler's ambition, and the challenge Germany posed to their Great Power status, did they finally declare war.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Yes I know it's barely August but I believe I will not read a better book than this for some time to come. Such books are indeed a rarity and deserve special attention when discovered. This is a breathtakingly explicit account of pre war events from 1933 to 1939. But when we learn that this is in fact volume two of Steiner's study of the inter war years, the achievement is even more astounding. I finished reading this book almost a month ago but felt too intimidated to review such a magnificent tome. To write a short yet balanced critique of this work may be a bridge too far for this reviewer, no doubt some will try, perhaps, even succeed. I will watch with interest. Here's a very brief summary.
Part one of this book covers the retreat from internationalism, the rise of Hitler and the disavowal of the treaties of Locarno and Versailles. The global intake of breath when German forces reoccupy the Rhineland and the beginning of the rearmament race. The Spanish civil war is covered in quite some detail and the ramifications for all involved particularly the Italians who may have over indulged and as a consequence found themselves stretched and under supplied in the catastrophic conflict that was soon to follow. The colonial ambitions of all the major powers are exposed and explored and set against the backdrop of an increasingly delicate balance of power in the East. Will Hitler move East or West? Pacts are made and unmade and Hitler shows his cunning and determination for war when he moves against Austria and Czechoslovakia. The final chapter in part one is a study of the farce that was the Munich settlement.
Part two starts with an examination of the choices made by the major powers after Munich and how Hitler showed disrespect and utter contempt for all who stood before him. And still no one dared move. The imminence of unavoidable decisions and the stark realisation that a new brand of war will soon be fought across Europe invades parliaments and dinner tables the world over. The entire globe would soon be encapsulated in destruction when the dogs of war are unleashed. Hitlers disregard for treaties extends to neutralities and a fine study of the smaller nations hopes for the safeguarding of their people through diplomatic channels is carried out along with a dissection of the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, also disregarded.
We all know the outcome of the war and the many conclusions drawn by historians the world over. Steiner brings a freshness with hers. I suppose with a conflict so far reaching and with global populations being devastated not to mention the attempted destruction of the Jews it's inevitable that a veritable whirlwind of "what if's" will forever surround any account of this cataclysmic event. The old cliche of a must read book springs to mind here but somehow still doesn't grasp the importance of this work of a lifetime. Every year we are left with fewer survivors of this terrible epoch and history can have this tragic knack of sometimes repeating itself. This has to be compulsory reading, lest we forget.
Part one of this book covers the retreat from internationalism, the rise of Hitler and the disavowal of the treaties of Locarno and Versailles. The global intake of breath when German forces reoccupy the Rhineland and the beginning of the rearmament race. The Spanish civil war is covered in quite some detail and the ramifications for all involved particularly the Italians who may have over indulged and as a consequence found themselves stretched and under supplied in the catastrophic conflict that was soon to follow. The colonial ambitions of all the major powers are exposed and explored and set against the backdrop of an increasingly delicate balance of power in the East. Will Hitler move East or West? Pacts are made and unmade and Hitler shows his cunning and determination for war when he moves against Austria and Czechoslovakia. The final chapter in part one is a study of the farce that was the Munich settlement.
Part two starts with an examination of the choices made by the major powers after Munich and how Hitler showed disrespect and utter contempt for all who stood before him. And still no one dared move. The imminence of unavoidable decisions and the stark realisation that a new brand of war will soon be fought across Europe invades parliaments and dinner tables the world over. The entire globe would soon be encapsulated in destruction when the dogs of war are unleashed. Hitlers disregard for treaties extends to neutralities and a fine study of the smaller nations hopes for the safeguarding of their people through diplomatic channels is carried out along with a dissection of the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, also disregarded.
We all know the outcome of the war and the many conclusions drawn by historians the world over. Steiner brings a freshness with hers. I suppose with a conflict so far reaching and with global populations being devastated not to mention the attempted destruction of the Jews it's inevitable that a veritable whirlwind of "what if's" will forever surround any account of this cataclysmic event. The old cliche of a must read book springs to mind here but somehow still doesn't grasp the importance of this work of a lifetime. Every year we are left with fewer survivors of this terrible epoch and history can have this tragic knack of sometimes repeating itself. This has to be compulsory reading, lest we forget.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
For those who have over the years made a close study of the interwar diplomatic and political history of Europe Professor Steiner's magisterial two-volume work on this topic will be both absorbing and enlightening. The carefully chosen main collective title 'European International History...', which has, regretfully, been misunderstood by some critical comments made on this page, is in fact a precise one. What is being analysed so skilfully is the increasingly doomed relationship between the nations of Europe both in the individual contexts of their national histories and in the wider inter-nation contexts of the European and ultimately worldwide implications which became actual from 1940/1941. What especially distinguishes the importance of Professor Steiner's work is its synthesis of impressively resourced and balanced material exposition with carefully argued analysis. This is very far indeed from being simply "recorded facts and prejudice" or merely "a useful compendium of facts", and one is both puzzled and saddened to find such misleading opinions being expressed after what one is entitled to suppose was a careful and informed reading of these two books. Fellow professional historians who have worked and taught in this field over many years will undoubtedly find their understandings enriched by what will certainly remain a source of reflection and stimulus for the foreseeable future.
4 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like so many historians whose opinions rest mainly on recorded facts and prejudice, the title chosen by the author of this work takes little or no account of the upshot of the decisions and events prior to 1939 that lead up to the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and the creation of the UN, an event whose significance can be better appreciated by a detailed reading of Winston Churchill's 'Sinews of Peace' speech at Fulton Missiouri, usually and misleadingly referred to as his Iron Curtain Speech.
Nevertheless it is a useful compendium of facts about Europe in the period covered gathered into one convenient if slightly unwieldy 1222 pages.
The author's aim stated in her preface is that she has tried to write 'International History' and in this she has to some consdierable extent succeeded. In this reviewer's view that is a regrettably restricted aim since it does not take into account supranational considerations, an essential requirement for long term human survival on this small and shrinking planet.
Nevertheless it is a useful compendium of facts about Europe in the period covered gathered into one convenient if slightly unwieldy 1222 pages.
The author's aim stated in her preface is that she has tried to write 'International History' and in this she has to some consdierable extent succeeded. In this reviewer's view that is a regrettably restricted aim since it does not take into account supranational considerations, an essential requirement for long term human survival on this small and shrinking planet.
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