Product Description

24 August 1939: The fate of the world is hanging in the balance. Hitler has ambitions to invade Poland and hopes Stalin will now help him. And the West must try to stop him. If they donÂ’t, world war will result. In this dramatic account of the last days of peace in 1939, Richard Overy re-creates hour by hour the unfolding story in the capitals of Europe as politicians and the public braced themselves for a war that they feared might spell the end of European civilisation. There was nothing entirely predictable or inevitable about the outcome. The West hoped that Hitler would see sense if they stood firm. Hitler was convinced the West would back down. There were moments of hesitation and moments of confrontation; secret intelligence was used by both sides to support their hopes. The one constant feature was the determination of Poland, a country created only in 1919, to fight a war that seemed entirely irrational, against the armed might of Germany. Countdown to War brings to life a defining moment in the history of the violent twentieth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15068 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

About the Author
Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of more than twenty books on the era of the two World Wars, including Why the Allies Won, RussiaÂ’s War and more recently The Dictators: HitlerÂ’s Germany and StalinÂ’s Russia, which won the Wolfson Prize in 2005. His latest book, The Morbid Age: Britain between the Wars, was published in 2009.

Customer Reviews

Good Resource But Very Brief
This interesting little tome sets out the diplomatic events of the period 24th August - 3rd September 1939 as the world stared out on the brink. In 6 short chapters Overy details the efforts - and the thinking behind them - of Britain, France, Poland and Germany to avoid a general European conflict. Grippingly written, the book tells of the tragic failed initiatives, ultimatums and shuttle diplomacy conducted by the likes of Halifax, Henderson, Chamberlain, Daladier, Bonnet and others, and the moves made by Hitler, Ribbentrop and Goring in the war of nerves leading up to the outbreak. Overy explains that while both sides fervently hoped the other would back down, Hitler was genuinely convinced that although he was taking a risk, when it came down to it the Western powers would not fight. The writer is ultimately sceptical of the view that Hitler had always harboured plans of world domination and seems to feel that Poland should have relented to some German demands in order to avert the conflict. He also writes interestingly about the significance of the effects of mental stress and sleeplessness on the decision-making process in those few crucial days. As well as the thoughts and actions of the statesmen, Overy occasionally quotes from letters and diaries of civillians to give a good picture of the atmosphere of the time.

I found the book to be a fascinating resource and I imagine it would be very useful for students, but I must point out that for an RRP of £12.99 it is a very short volume - it stands at only 126 pages in stockinged-feet i.e. including the preface but not the notes & index. The recent book "Outbreak: 1939" is more physically substantial for your money and covers a much bigger part of the year but is very choppy and emphasises the people's experience more, consisting in large part of short paragraphs from various diaries in the run-up to (and immediate aftermath of) the declaration of war. Overy's book flows well and is well written but you will be done in a couple of hours.

1939 Countdown to War
What is so dramatic about this book is that it recreates hour by hour the days before the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939. You feel very much part of the growing tensions where nothing was predictable or inevitable. Although only a short book (149 pages) it is jam-packed with interesting and relevant detail. It is written in a journalistic manner which comes across as "this is how it happened".
I would wholeheartedly recommend this book

Very flawed analysis
This is a short book with very little substantive evidence presented in support of some seriously revisionsit viewpoints.

The unfortunate but entirely logical conclusion of the author's central thesis (that Poland ought to have acceeded to some of the German demands) is that France ought to have surrended Alsace and Lorraine and Britain returned the former German colonies seized at the end of the first war. If only Russia had been good enough to hand over some of her western territories for German lebensraum in the east (and Poland conveniently returned to her partitioned state of the 19th century) then the tragedy that was the war could have been averted.

I would suggest a brief introduction to Mein Kampf as the perfect antidote to this poorly constructed and not very well throught out book.