Publisher's Synopsis
This is the first of two volumes designed to explain the origins of World War II by focusing on the role of German foreign policy. That policy, as determined by Adolf Hitler, is analyzed on the basis of comprehensive research in German, British and American archives. The published documents of France, Italy, Russia and numerous other countries, as well as the extensive literature on the subject and the papers of many participants, have been researched to present what this comprehensive study of the road to war in 1939.;Paying careful attention to the actions of all the major powers and many minor ones, Weinberg examines how Germany took advantages of its central position and the general fear of war after the terrible experience of 1914-1918 to attain a dominant position on the European continent. New light is shed on German re-armament, on the efforts of Britain and France to avert the war, on the annexation of Austria, on the crisis culminating in the Munich Agreement, and on the final steps to war in 1939. Events in East Asia and the role of the United States are also covered.;Of interest to both the specialist and the general reader, these two volumes were originally published by the University of Chicago Press in 1970 and 1980. Volume 1 received the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association and volume II won the Haiverson Prize of the German Studies Association. Both volumes are now available in paperback with a new preface relating them to the evidence, the controversies, and the literature of the years since they were first published.
