1939: A People's History of the Coming of the Second World War

by Frederick Taylor

Overview

A best-selling historian’s chronicle of the dramatic months from the Munich Agreement to Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II.

In the autumn of 1938, Europe believed in the promise of peace. But only a year later, the fateful decisions of just a few men had again led Europe to a massive world war. Drawing on contemporary diaries, memoirs, and newspapers, as well as recorded interviews, 1939 is a narrative account of what the coming of the Second World War felt like to those who lived through it.

Frederick Taylor, author of renowned histories of the Berlin Wall and the bombing of Dresden, highlights the day-to-day experiences of ordinary citizens as well as those who were at the height of power in Germany and Britain. Their voices lend an intimate flavor to this often-surprising account of the period and reveal a marked disconnect between government and people, for few people in either country wanted war.

1939 is a vivid and richly peopled narrative of Europe’s slide into the horrors of war and a powerful warning for our own time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393868272
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	640,523
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Frederick Taylor is the author of Dresden, The Berlin Wall, and other works of history, and he edited and translated The Goebbels Diaries, 1939–41. He lives in Cornwall, England.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Maps xi

Introduction 1

1 September 1938: 'So, No War!' 15

2 October 1938: 'More Popular than Hitler' 41

3 November 1938: 'We Are Being Hunted Like Hares' 69

4 Winter 1938/1939: 'Does Conscription Mean That the Men Will Have to Go Away?' 105

5 Spring 1939: 'It's Hitler Again: But Don't Worry!' 143

6 April/May 1939: 'We All Love Him Very, Very Much' 183

7 June/July 1939: 'Fine, Fine, Fine. Blue and Sunshine Everywhere' 225

8 1-22 August 1939: 'To Die for Danzig?' 263

9 23-31 August 1939: 'Grandmother Is Dead' 287

10 1-3 September 1939: 'So the Madness Unfolds' 325

Acknowledgements 375

Notes 377

Sources 411

Index 421

Editorial Reviews

"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."

Wall Street Journal - Daniel Todman

"Fascinating and well-written."

Times (UK) - Gerard DeGroot

03/30/2020

British historian Taylor (Coventry) delivers an incisive survey of “the experience of the people living day by day, week by week, through the chaotic and unpredictable time immediately preceding the outbreak of the Second World War.” Juxtaposing British and German perspectives, Taylor chronicles the year between the 1938 Munich Agreement and the 1939 invasion of Poland, drawing on personal diaries, published memoirs, newspaper accounts, and oral histories to examine how “the mass of the people” in both countries went from not wanting war to tolerating it with “grim determination.” British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, Taylor shows, at first received “almost unanimous” praise from the press for his appeasement policy, but “hardly anyone” thought Hitler would stop with annexing the Sudeten territories of Czechoslovakia. Following Kristallnacht in November 1938, ordinary Britons saw the Nazi regime as “barbaric” and “guided by unhinged personalities,” but remained largely ambivalent about Jewish refugees. In Germany, meanwhile, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels waged a yearlong disinformation campaign that convinced even some German Jews to support the invasion of Poland. Taylor’s research impresses, though the granularity of detail may daunt all but the most dedicated of readers, and a through line about German serial killer Johann Eichhorn seems out of place. This exhaustive deep-dive offers fresh insights into how WWII happened. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"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

03/01/2020

The subtitle is a bit misleading. Rather than writing a true people's history, Taylor (Dresden) provides a straightforward narrative of how World War II started from the perspectives of the major players in Great Britain and Germany such as former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and German leaders Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. Taylor touches on some aspects of daily life in those countries as well as other news that was overlooked and forgotten because of the momentous events of 1938 and 1939. In addition, Taylor sprinkles in diary entries from the time as well as personal interviews he conducted with people who were children in 1939. He gives some attention to the issue of propaganda and how the German and British governments managed public opinion and encouraged their populations to fight. Taylor also recounts how atrocities committed against ethnic Germans were used by the Nazi regime to justify its aggression. VERDICT Written in an accessible, engaging style, this book will appeal most to casual readers of popular history. [See Prepub Alert, 11/4/19.]—Michael Farrell, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, FL

Library Journal

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.

Kirkus Reviews