The Origins of the Second World War An International Perspective [Hardcover]

Many major world events have occurred since the last key anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War, and these events have had a dramatic impact on the international stage: 9/11, the Iraq War, climate change and the world economic crisis. This is an opportune moment to bring together a group of major international experts who will offer a series of new interpretations of the key aspects of the origins of the Second World War. Each chapter is based on original archival research and written by scholars who are all leading experts in their fields. This is a truly international collection of articles, with wide breadth and scope, which includes contributions from historians, and also political scientists, gender theorists, and international relations experts. This is an important contribution to scholarly debate on one of the most important events of the 20th century and a subject of major interest to the general reader, historians, students and researchers, policy makers and conflict prevention experts.

Introduction - McDonough / 1.The Versailles Settlement: The Start of the Road to the Second World War? - Sharp / 2. The League of Nations: An Idea Before its Time? - Henig / 3. An Ideological Genealogy of Imperial Era Japanese Militarism - Sheftall / 4. Italian Foreign Policy and the Road to War 1918-39: Ambitions and Delusions of the Least of the Great Powers - Bosworth / 5. The Failure of Detente? German Foreign Policy from Locarno to German Rearmament - Fischer / 6. Hitler, German Foreign Policy and the Road to War: A German Perspective - Ludicke / 7. Germany's Twisted Road to War 1918-39 - Forster / 8. The Prussian Tradition, the Myth of the Blitzkrieg and the Illusion of German Military Dominance 1939-41 - Citino / 9. Guilty Men? Three British Foreign Secretaries in the 1930s - Dutton / 10. Neville Chamberlain and the Consequences of the Churchillian Hegemony - Charmley / 11. When Instinct Clouds Judgement: Neville Chamberlain and the Pursuit of Appeasel“D