The origins of the Second World War
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The origins of the Second World War
（Seminar studies in history）
Pearson Longman, 2008
3rd ed
Available at 5 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [133]-144) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The book explores the reasons why the Second World War broke out in September 1939 and not sooner, and why a European war expanded into world war by 1941. The war has usually been seen simply as Hitler's war and yet the wider conflict that broke out when Germany invaded Poland was not the war that Hitler wanted. He had hoped for a short war against Poland; instead, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Richard Overy argues that any explanation of the outbreak of hostilities must therefore be multi-national and he shows how the war's origins are to be found in the basic instability of the international system that was brought about by the decline of the old empires of Britain and France and the rise of ambitious new powers, Italy, Germany and Japan, keen to build new empires of their own.
Table of Contents
(Current edition)
PART ONE: THE BACKGROUND
1. Explaining the Second World War
PART TWO: ANALYSIS
2. The International Crisis
The collapse of the League
France and Britain
America and the Soviet Union
From the Rhineland to Munich
3. Economic and Imperial Rivalry
The imperial powers
The `have-not' powers
The failure of `Economic Appeasement'
4. Armaments and Domestic Politics
Rearmament
Finance, industry and labour
Rearmament and domestic politics
5. War Over Poland
The aftermath of Munich
The Soviet factor
The outbreak of the war
6. From European to World War
The war in the west
Barbarossa
The coming of world war
PART THREE: ASSESSMENT
7. Hitler's War?
PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS
by "Nielsen BookData"