Origins of the Second World War: An International Perspective

Frank McDonough is a recognised authority on Anglo-German relations and is Reader of International History at Liverpool John Moores University. A prolific writer, his books include Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War (1998); The Holocaust (2008); and Sophie Scholl: Heroine of the German Resistance (2009)

Here is modern history-writing at its very best. Frank McDonough has brought together no fewer than 30 other leading scholars to examine that most vital of historical moments - the outbreak of the Second World War - from every conceivable international aspect. Ground-breaking, fascinating, occasionally deeply revisionist and always highly readable; this sets the mark for all collaborative history from now on

• 1. The origins of the Second World War: the historical debate - Professor Anthony Adamthwaite; 2. Italy and the origins of the Second World War - Professor Richard Bosworth; 3. Neville Chamberlain: guilty or innocent - a critical assessment - Professor John Charmley; 4. A war mentality? Public opinion and foreign policy in the Third Reich - Professor Thomas Childers; 5. The war that Hitler won: the Wehrmacht, military operations and the German way of war - Robert Citino.; 6. The role of the USA in the international relations of the inter-war period - Professor Patrick O.Cohrs. 7. Guilty men? Three British Foreign Secretaries of the 1930s - David Dutton.; 8. The failure of detente? German foreign policy from Locarno to German rearmament - Professor Conan Fischer; 9. The role of the Middle East in the global crisis of the inter-war years - Professor Thomas G. Fraser; 10. The Czech crisis of 1938 - Professor Milan Hauner; 11. German foreign policy, military strategy and the coming of war - Professor Jurgen Forster; 12. The League of Nations: why did it fail? - Baroness Dr Ruth Henig; 13. Japanese foreign policy and the road to the Asia-Pacific war - Professor Haruo Iguchi; 14. Politics, strategy and economics: a comparative analysis of British and French 'appeasement' - Dr Talbot Imlay; 15. The role of US isolationism - Professor Manfred Jonas; 16. The role of the neutral European powers - Professor Efraim Karsh; 17. The role of the 'Jewish Question' in international affairs in the inter-war years - Dr Mark Levene; 18. Was Chamberlain's appeasement a viable policy to cope with the Nazi threat in the 1930s? - Frank McDonough.; 19. The international implications of the Spanish Civil War - Professor Enrique Moradiellos; 20. The role of economic factors in the origins of the Second World War - Professor Richard Overy; 21. Poland, the 'Danzig Question' and the outbreak of war - Professor Anita Prazmowska; 22. Appeasement reconsidered: reflections on the road to war - Professor Jeffrey Record; 23. The Soviet Union and the road to war - Professor Geoffrey Roberts; 24. The Versailles settlement: a critical assessment - Professor Alan Sharp; 25. An ideological genealogy of Imperial Japanese-era militarism - M.G.Sheftall.; 26. The missing dimension? The role of British intelligence - Dr Calder Watson; 27.Poland and the road to war - Professor Piotyr Wandycz; 28. Neutral Europe and the road to war - Dr Neville Wylie; 29. French foreign policy and the road to war - Professor Robert J. Young.