1939: Countdown to War

This countrys most distinguished historian of the Second World War … Overys book is easily the best account of Europes descent into the death and destruction that were Hitlers element- Michael Burleigh, Evening Standard 24 August 1939: The fate of the world is hanging in the balance. Hitler has ambitions to invade Poland and hopes Stalin will help him. The West must stop them. If they fail, the world will go to war. Richard Overys dramatic account re-creates hour-by-hour the last days of peace, as politicians and the public braced themselves for a war they feared might spell the end of civilization. A gripping analysis of the final days of peace … indispensable- M. R. D. Foot, The Times Nail-biting … with rare narrative verve, he documents the ultimatums, emissaries, letters and increasingly desperate proposals that shuttled across Europe in the countdown to war- Ian Thomson, Independent Even those who think they know it all about how war broke out will learn something from Richard Overys book- Simon Heffer, Literary Review One of the great historians of this conflict- Simon Garfield, Observer