The History Book Club discussion

This is the thread where discussion of "the causes of the Second World War can take place.

This thread is part of the folder devoted to the discussion of the SECOND WORLD WAR which can include - (people, locations, events, books and other publications, battles, historic sites, maps, research information, urls, etc.).

However this thread has as its single focus anything related to the causes and its origination. In other words, what led to the beginning of this conflict?

Please feel free to add any and all discussion information related to this topic area in this thread.

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Bentley

The History Learning Site states:

"The causes of World War Two can be divided into long term causes and short term causes. There can be little doubt that one of the long term causes of the war was the anger felt in Weimar Germany that was caused by the Treaty of Versailles. Another long term cause was the obvious inability of the League of Nations to deal with major international issues. In the 1930’s these would have been in Manchuria and Abyssinia. In both conflicts the League showed that it was unable to control those powers that worked outside of accepted international law. In the case of Manchuria it was Japan and in Abyssinia it was Mussolini’s Italy.

With such apparent weakness, Hitler must have known that at the very least he could push the boundaries and see what he could get away with. His first major transgression was his defiance of the Versailles Treaty when he introduced re-armament into Nazi Germany. The expansion of all three arms of the military was forbidden by treaty. Hitler, however, ignored these restrictions. The world’s powers did nothing. The same occurred in 1936 when Nazi Germany re-occupied the Rhineland. Forbidden by Versailles, Hitler felt confident enough to ignore it. Europe’s failure to react was also demonstrated when Austria and the Sudentenland were occupied. Only when it became obvious that Hitler was determined to expand east and that what was left of Czechoslovakia and region Poland were to be his next targets, did the major powers of Europe react. Hitler’s reference to the Munich Agreement as a “scrap of paper” made clear his intentions. However, in 1938, very many in the UK had supported Neville Chamberlain’s attempts at avoiding war (appeasement) and public opinion was on his side. This only changed when it became clear that appeasement had failed and the public rallied to the side of Winston Churchill – the man who had insisted that Chamberlain had taken the wrong course of action."

Source: The History Learning Site


Note: Proper citation rules must be used when citing any books or authors. You must include the bookcover when available, the author's photo when available and always the author's link.

Here is an example:

by Winston Churchill

This thread was requested by Bryan Craig.

In the opinion of many, British PM Neville Chamberlain was responsible for allowing Hitler to draw Europe into what became WWII. This book examines the Munich Conference which produced the phrase "Peace in our time", something Chamberlain would live to regret.

Munich 1938: Appeasement and World War II

by David Faber

Synopsis

The dramatic narrative account of the 1938 Munich appeasement conference, in which Britain agreed to Adolf Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland in return for his promise never to go to war again—before tumbling inexorably into World War II.

A pivotal chapter in history: When British Prime minister Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler signed an appeasement treaty in 1938, Chamberlain promised that the result would be “peace in our time.” David Faber sheds new light on the key incidents leading up to the Munich meeting and its aftermath; in Berlin, we witness Hitler’s relentless preparations for war, even in the face of opposition from his own party, while in London, we watch helplessly as Chamberlain seizes executive control from his own cabinet, and makes one supreme effort after another to appease the Fuhrer.

Thanks Jill, it sounds interesting.

Chamberlain has been vilified in most books for his appeasement of Hitler. No matter how much I read about Munich and the years leading up to it, I just can't decide about Chamberlain and his motives/abilities. Was he a naive man who really thought that Hitler meant what he said......was he a man out of touch with the realities around him.....was he giving Britain time to prepare for the war to come? Hindsight is, of course, 20/20 so it is easy to condemn his actions, especially when he was followed into office by Churchill, one of the greatest,if not the greatest, British PM. I am interested to know what others think?

I think the thing that is easiest to lose track of, with hindsight, is that WW I had ended not all that long ago.

John Keegan, among many others, argues that there was really one war, with a long gap in between. If one looks just at dates - 1918 to 1939 - that seems silly. 21 years is a very long gap indeed! But it was shorter than that for both practical and psychological purposes: Hitler's rise to power started long before 1939, and the memory of people in power was long: Chamberlain, for example, was born in 1869. He was a middle-aged adult during WWI.

Further, Chamberlain's policies were very popular in Britain at the time.

I am no apologist for Chamberlain - he should have seen the signs, and they were clear enough - but we should still try to put ourselves in his time to judge his decisions.

I for one do not think that Chamberlain was a bad man; he was doing the best he knew how and he was trying to avoid a war - but I do think he was misguided and maybe had an inflated opinion of what he could accomplish. Naive is a kind word. What Britain went through during World War II and France for that matter; I would not wish on any country. They suffered much.

Peter......A good point regarding our trying to "be in the moment" before judging Chamberlain's actions. A generation of young Englishmen were wiped out in the Great War and, as PM, he certainly wanted to avoid another slaughter....but on the other hand, Hitler's actions prior to Munich were suspect and his goal of lebenstraum was a clue to what might be waiting in the wings. Historians (and lovers of history) will continue to disagree on Chamberlain and his actions as long as books are written.

Chamberlain was also under a lot of political pressure to play nice with Hitler. It's something we don't like to talk about today, but there was a lot of support for fascism in England -- and the US -- particularly among the powerful upper crust.

Sir Oswald Mosley leaps to mind as the major Fascist in England, as well as the Dukes of Bedford and Westminster and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. It is not something that appears attractive today but certainly was true as Fascism was taking hold in Europe.

There is a recent book - I think it was reviewed in this weeks NY Review of Books - about Americans in Germany during Hitler's rise to power.

There was indeed lots of support for fascism. And Hitler also managed to fool a lot of people.

Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry, the Nazis, and the Road to War

Ian Kershaw

Synopsis

Ian Kershaw’s biography of Adolf Hitler is widely regarded as the definitive work on the subject, as well as one of the most brilliant biographies of our time. In Making Friends with Hitler, the great scholar shines remarkable new light on decisions that led to war by tracing the extraordinary story of Lord Londonderry—one of Britain’s wealthiest aristocrats, cousin of Winston Churchill, confidant of the king, and the only British cabinet member to outwardly support the Nazi party. Through Londonderry’s tragic tale, Kershaw shows us that behind the accepted dogma of English appeasement and German bullying is a much more complicated and interesting reality—full of miscalculations on both sides that proved to be among the most fateful in history.

Outbreak: 1939: The World Goes to War

Terry Charman

Synopsis

11:15 am, 3 September 1939. The nation gathers around their radios to hear Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain make the announcement they have feared for months: Britain is at war with Germany. Seventy years on from that historic day, this is the definitive history of the build-up to, outbreak and first few months of World War Two, from the events of early 1939, right through to the first war-time Christmas. Drawing on the Imperial War Museum's extensive archives, this book will feature the personal stories of real men and women who lived through the startling events of that year, as well as those who were actively involved in the political negotiations and their aftermath. Featuring numerous photographs and the voices of key players, as well as contributions from well-known figures who were directly affected by the build up to an outbreak of war, this will be a unique document of an extraordinary year in our history.

Why England Slept

John F. Kennedy

Synopsis

Written by John F. Kennedy in 1940 when he was still in college and reprinted in 1961 when he was president, this book is an appraisal of the tragic events of the thirties that led to World War II. It is an account of England's unpreparedness for war and a study of the shortcomings of democracy when confronted by the menace of totalitarianism.

World War II: Roots and Causes

Keith Eubank

Synopsis

Topics of focus include the problem of historical context, the tension between traditional and revisionist viewpoints, the question of Allied appeasement, the failure of intelligence-gathering, the Soviet role, and the place of the Holocaust in accounts of the causes of World War II.

The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific

Akira Iriye

Synopsis

Professor Iriye analyses the origins of the 1941 conflict against the background of international relations in the preceding decade in order to answer the key question: Why did Japan decide to go to war against so formidable a combination of powers?

The Origins of the Second World War in Europe

Philip Michael Hett Bell

Synopsis

PMH Bell's famous book is a comprehensive study of the period and debates surrounding the European origins of the Second World War. He approaches the subject from three different angles: describing the various explanations that have been offered for the war and the historiographical debates that have arisen from them, analysing the ideological, economic and strategic forces at work in Europe during the 1930s, and tracing the course of events from peace in 1932, via the initial outbreak of hostilities in 1939, through to the climactic German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 which marked the descent into general conflict.

Written in a lucid, accessible style, this is an indispensable guide to the complex origins of the Second World War.

Thank you Bryan for all of the activity.

The Origins of The Second World War

A.J.P. Taylor

Synopsis

One of the most popular and controversial historians of the twentieth century, who made his subject accessible to millions, A.J.P. Taylor caused a storm of outrage with this scandalous bestseller. Debunking what were accepted truths about the Second World War, he argued provocatively that Hitler did not set out to cause the war as part of an evil master plan, but blundered into it partly by accident, aided by the shortcomings of others.

Fiercely attacked for vindicating Hitler, A.J.P. Taylor's stringent re-examination of the events preceding the Nazi invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939 opened up new debate, and is now recognized as a brilliant and classic piece of scholarly research.

Going to War with Japan, 1937-1941

Jonathan G. Utley

Synopsis

How did Japan and the United States end up at waron December 7, 1941? What American decisions mighthave provoked the Japanese decision to attack Pearl Harbor?In this classic study of the run up to World War II, Utley examines the ways domestic politics shaped America'sresponse to Japanese moves in the Pacific.

The Origins of the Second World War

Richard Overy

Synopsis

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.

Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered

Gordon Martel

Synopsis

When A.J.P. Taylor's The Origins of the Second World War appeared in 1961 it made a profound impact. The book became a classic and a central point of reference in all discussion on the Second World War.

The second edition of this distinguished collection, written by leading experts in the field, is designed to bring the state of the argument up to date. The issues discussed include:

* the legacy of the Treaty of Versailles
* Hitlers foreign policy
* Appeasement
* AJP Taylor and the Russians
* the treatment of the crises leading up to war including the Anschluss, Danzig, Abysinnian crises and the Spanish Civil War.

This second edition will ensure that The Origins of the Second World War will remain a high priority student and scholarly reading lists.

The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm

Winston Churchill

Synopsis

The step-by-step decline into war, with Churchill becoming prime minister as "the tocsin was about to sound."

Bentley wrote: "Thank you Bryan for all of the activity."

Thanks, Bentley. Glad you created this thread.

You are welcome Bryan and the group did discuss the book mentioned in 22.

The Triumph of the Dark: European International History, 1933-1939

Zara Steiner

Synopsis

In this magisterial narrative, Zara Steiner traces the twisted road to war that began with Hitler's assumption of power in Germany. Covering a wide geographical canvas, from America to the Far East, Steiner provides an indispensable reassessment of the most disputed events of these tumultuous years.

Steiner underlines the far-reaching consequences of the Great Depression, which shifted the initiative in international affairs from those who upheld the status quo to those who were intent on destroying it. In Europe, the l930s were Hitler's years. He moved the major chess pieces on the board, forcing the others to respond. From the start, Steiner argues, he intended war, and he repeatedly gambled on Germany's future to acquire the necessary resources to fulfill his continental ambitions. Only war could have stopped him-an unwelcome message for most of Europe. Misperception, miscomprehension, and misjudgment on the part of the other Great Powers leaders opened the way for Hitler's repeated diplomatic successes.

It is ideology that distinguished the Hitler era from previous struggles for the mastery of Europe. Ideological presumptions created false images and raised barriers to understanding that even good intelligence could not penetrate. Only when the leaders of Britain and France realized the scale of Hitler's ambition, and the challenge Germany posed to their Great Power status, did they finally declare war.

Here is an interesting book that will be released in the in the coming months.

Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941

by Lynne Olson

Synopsis
From the acclaimed author of Citizens of London comes the definitive account of the debate over American intervention in World War II—a bitter, sometimes violent clash of personalities and ideas that divided the nation and ultimately determined the fate of the free world.

At the center of this controversy stood the two most famous men in America: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who championed the interventionist cause, and aviator Charles Lindbergh, who, as unofficial leader and spokesman for America’s isolationists, emerged as the president’s most formidable adversary. Their contest of wills personified the divisions within the country at large, and Lynne Olson makes masterly use of their dramatic personal stories to create a poignant and riveting narrative. While FDR, buffeted by political pressures on all sides, struggled to marshal public support for aid to Winston Churchill’s Britain, Lindbergh saw his heroic reputation besmirched—and his marriage thrown into turmoil—by allegations that he was a Nazi sympathizer.

Spanning the years 1939 to 1941, Those Angry Days vividly re-creates the rancorous internal squabbles that gripped the United States in the period leading up to Pearl Harbor. After Germany vanquished most of Europe, America found itself torn between its traditional isolationism and the urgent need to come to the aid of Britain, the only country still battling Hitler. The conflict over intervention was, as FDR noted, “a dirty fight,” rife with chicanery and intrigue, and Those Angry Days recounts every bruising detail. In Washington, a group of high-ranking military officers, including the Air Force chief of staff, worked to sabotage FDR’s pro-British policies. Roosevelt, meanwhile, authorized FBI wiretaps of Lindbergh and other opponents of intervention. At the same time, a covert British operation, approved by the president, spied on antiwar groups, dug up dirt on congressional isolationists, and planted propaganda in U.S. newspapers. Among the notable figures involved in the struggle were future U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford, Peace Corps director Sargent Shriver, and authors Gore Vidal and Kurt Vonnegut.

The stakes could not have been higher. The combatants were larger than life. With the immediacy of a great novel, Those Angry Days brilliantly recalls a time fraught with danger when the future of democracy and America’s role in the world hung in the balance.

As a supplement to the book noted above, I would suggest this one which gives us an insider's look at the America First movement and Charles Lindbergh's involvement, which besmirched his reputation and left a stigma on this later life.

by A. Scott Berg

Synopsis
This is a most compelling story of a most significant life; the most private of public figures finally revealed with a sweep and detail never before possible. In the skilled hands of A. Scott Berg, this is at once Lindbergh the hero--and Lindbergh the man.

Awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

From one of America's most acclaimed biographers comes the definitive account of the life of one of the nation's most legendary, controversial, and enigmatic figures: aviator Charles A. Lindbergh.

Bryan wrote: "The Triumph of the Dark: European International History, 1933-1939

Zara Steiner,

from message 25

Hi Bryan can you tell me a little more about this book, I saw it on Amazon, it's $65.00 and 1,200 pages!! Is it encyclopedic in structure or is it more a typical chronological narrative flow? It does sound interesting, but pricey and long.

Bryan wrote: "Origins of the Second World War Reconsidered

Gordon Martel

Synopsis

When A.J.P. Taylor's The Origins of the Second World War appear..."

This is a good book packed full of interesting views. Taylor argued that Hitler acted like a 'normal' German leader with his expansionist policy i.e Germany for the Germans. People in the 1930s had no problem with German speaking areas like Austria or the Rhineland becoming part of Germany again.

If you're familiar with German history in the days of Bismarck, then you'll know about Germany's attempts to stamp out the Polish minority in the east, so Hitler attacking Poland was not a new thing in German history. Like others have said, history is complicated.

Jill wrote: "As a supplement to the book noted above, I would suggest this one which gives us an insider's look at the America First movement and Charles Lindbergh's involvement, which besmirched his reputation..."

I gave the “Lindbergh” and “RICKENBACKER” books five stars.

During the 1930’s high ranking German officials were so proud of their aviation accomplishments that their facilities were open for individual guided tours to America’s two greatest patriotic aviator heroes, Charles Lindbergh and Eddie Rickenbacker. Over dinner and drinks German military officers would boast about their future.

Rickenbacker foresaw a looming Second World War and he voiced his concern that America needed to invest and expand heavily in aviation. He predicted that if America showed proper strength Germany would back down and a Second World War could be averted. It’s interesting that both Lindberg and Rickenbacker remained at odds with President Roosevelt.

by A. Scott Berg
by Edward V. Rickenbacker

RMF and MikeyB, don't forget to add the author links. When you use the reply function the citations do not always carry over properly.
by Zara Steiner
by Gordon Martel
Thanks.

I read a book a couple years back written by a German tank commander. The take from the German side in an autobiographical book was not something I had experienced before. He really changed my opinion on the German vs Nazi population and how not all of Germany was behind Hitler. A very interesting read.

by Hans von Luck

Thanks Sharon and great citation job!

Good recommendation, Sharon. I think we sometimes don't get a chance to read about the war from the other side and if often is not exactly the way we thought it was. Looks like something for my TBR list.

Thanks, Bryan and Jill. It would seem that whenever a war is fought, people tend to forget that even though an enemy comes from a particular place, not every person from that place is the enemy.
I find after reading this, that I am more interested in learning about the losing side than the winning as the winning will be in the history books for the rest of time and the losing is generally forgotten.

Very insightful comment Sharon. We do forget that there is the losing side as well as the winner. Another book that covers the "enemy" is noted below and is authored by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe ace of aces. It gives the reader the other side of the story.

The First and the Last

by Adolf Galland

Synopsis;

A fearless leader with 104 victories to his name, Galland was a legendary hero in Germany's Luftwaffe. Now he offers an insider's look at the division's triumphs in Poland and France and the last desperate battle to save the Reich. The clearest picture yet of how the Germans lost their war in the air.

Awesome. Thank you for that recommendation!

Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security, 1919 1941

by Mivhael A. Barnhart (no photo)

Synopsis:

The roots of Japan's aggressive, expansionist foreign policy have often been traced to its concern over acute economic vulnerability. Michael A. Barnhart tests this assumption by examining the events leading up to World War II in the context of Japan's quest for economic security, drawing on a wide array of Japanese and American sources.

Barnhart focuses on the critical years from 1938 to 1941 as he investigates the development of Japan's drive for national economic self-sufficiency and independence and the way in which this drive shaped its internal and external policies. He also explores American economic pressure on Tokyo and assesses its impact on Japan's foreign policy and domestic economy. He concludes that Japan's internal political dynamics, especially the bitter rivalry between its army and navy, played a far greater role in propelling the nation into war with the United States than did its economic condition or even pressure from Washington. Japan Prepares for Total War sheds new light on prewar Japan and confirms the opinions of those in Washington who advocated economic pressure against Japan.

On my read list, Bryan. :)

His Royal Highness Haile Selassie ("The Lion of Judah") went to the League of Nations in 1936 to plead for help for Ethiopia. Italy had invaded his country in 1935 and they were fighting Italian tanks with spears. The link below gives the entire speech.....the poignant picture of this tiny man in his imperial uniform asking for assistance is heartbreaking. The League refused to help.



__________________________________________________

It is such a shame when the world turns its back.

For some reason, that particular moment of Selassie has always stuck with me. The pictures of Ethiopian on camels with spears......brave, heroic men who didn't stand a chance even against such a poor military force as Italy. And no one would pay attention to him......unforgivable.

An interesting side-light to the Munich Agreement as it applied to Czechoslovakia.

In the Shadow of Munich

by Vit Smetana

Synopsis:

In September 1938, the major powers of Europe convened in Munich to discuss the future of Czechoslovakia in light of territorial demands made by Adolf Hitler. The ensuing agreement signed by Germany, France, Great Britain, and Italy authorized the German takeover of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. Just four years later, however, the British government declared the Munich Agreement void and thus having no influence whatsoever on the future settlements of this region.


With In the Shadow of Munich, Smetana brings a fresh perspective to an often misunderstood epoch of European history. Drawing on his extensive research in British and Czech government archives, as well as numerous diaries and memoirs from the period, Smetana aims to dispel frequent myths and stereotypes that have long influenced interpretations of British and Czech relations immediately before and during World War II. A unique and provocative work, In the Shadow of Munich is essential for scholars of Slavic, Central, and East European studies.

Great updates Jill. And Happy belated birthday.

Most history readers agree that it was the Versailles Treaty which was totally unworkable, led to WWII and was considered "the stab in the back" by the Germans.

The Versailles Treaty and Its Legacy

by Norman A. Graebner (no photo)

Synopsis:

This study, a realist interpretation of the long diplomatic record that produced the coming of World War II in 1939, is a critique of the Paris Peace Conference and reflects the judgment shared by many who left the Conference in 1919 in disgust amid predictions of future war. The critique is a rejection of the idea of collective security, which Woodrow Wilson and many others believed was a panacea, but which was also condemned as early as 1915. This book delivers a powerful lesson in treaty-making and rejects the supposition that treaties, once made, are unchangeable, whatever their faults.

Anyone have recommendations on books about what was going on in Japan leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor?

Stacy......this Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a "must read' about Japan just prior and during WWII.

The Rising Sun

by John Willard Toland

Synopsis:

This Pulitzer Prize–winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, “a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened—muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox.”

In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history. In his Foreword, Toland says that if we are to draw any conclusion from The Rising Sun, it is “that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.”

I second that recommendation, Jill, a very good book.

I would also add:

by Meirion Harries (no photo)

More scholarly:

by Mivhael A. Barnhart (no photo)

Thanks for the recommendations! I will check them out.

Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941

by Joseph A. Maiolo (no photo)

Synopsis:

Did the arms race of the 1930s cause the Second World War?In Cry Havoc, historian Joseph Maiolo shows, in rich and fascinating detail, how the deadly game of the arms race was played out in the decade prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. In this exhaustively researched account, he explores how nations reacted to the moves of their rivals, revealing the thinking of those making the key decisions—Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, Stalin, Roosevelt—and the dilemmas of democratic leaders who seemed to be faced with a choice between defending their nations and preserving their democratic way of life.

An unparalleled account of an era of extreme political tension, Cry Havoc how the interwar arms race shaped the outcome of World War II before the shooting even began.