From the Publisher
"Rich in social and cultural details that bring the era to life…conveying a powerful sense of what it felt like to watch the precipice approach."— Daniel Todman Wall Street Journal
"Fascinating and well-written."— Gerard DeGroot Times (UK)
"Incisive…This exhaustive deep-dive offers fresh insights into how WWII happened."— Publishers Weekly
"For World War II history buffs, an illuminating study. "— Kirkus Reviews
"[E]ngaging [and] accessible."— Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews
2020-01-27
A history of the lead-up to World War II mostly from the point of view of Britain and Germany.
Despite the title, British historian Taylor, author of Dresden (2004), The Berlin Wall (2007), and other works of European history, covers the period from the October 1938 Munich Agreement through Germany’s invasion of Poland the following September. At their most loathsome during that year, Hitler and the Nazis achieved triumph after triumph against a dithering Britain and France. Cutting away regularly, the author uses diaries, letters, newspapers, surveys, and police reports to deliver a vivid account of how ordinary Britons and Germans reacted. Excepting many intellectuals and a few government officials, the average non-Jewish German admired Hitler. There was almost no unemployment despite a standard of living far below that in Britain and France, and the incessant patriotic cheerleading pleased almost everyone. Germans did not, however, want war, as Taylor clearly demonstrates. They liked the idea of acquiring more territory, but when Hitler promised to invade Czechoslovakia if it did not give up the Sudetenland, the absence of national enthusiasm disgusted him. As a result, in the summer before the war, Hitler’s propaganda machine poured out so much fake news denouncing Polish malevolence, depravity, and atrocities against its German minority that most felt invasion was justified. However, Britons wanted war even less than Germans, so much so that the Munich Pact produced almost universal cheers throughout the nation—although “once the initial joy at the avoidance of war had worn off there was a slow but steady growth of buyer’s remorse among many members of the general public.” This sentiment peaked in March 1939 when German troops occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia. At this point, most Britons agreed that Hitler was untrustworthy, and few objected when Britain and Poland signed a treaty that “guaranteed Polish independence.” That vague phrasing was easy to brush off, so Britain’s declaration of war after the invasion of Poland dismayed Germans from Hitler on down.
For World War II buffs, an illuminating study of a depressing year.
