Conference and the Onset of World War II(Harvard,
1974). J. W. Morley (ed.) Japan’s Road to the Pacific
War: Deterrent Diplomacy, 1935–40(Columbia, 1976)
and S. Ienaga, Japan’s Last War(Blackwell, 1979)
offer two very different Japanese views. Also useful is
C. Thorne, The Limits of Foreign Policy: The West, the
League and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1931–3(Hamish
Hamilton, 1972). A. Iriye (ed.), Mutual Images: Essays
in American Japanese Relations(Harvard, 1975) pro-
vides a stimulating broader series of excellent essays. By
the same author is The Origins of the Second World War
in Asia and the Pacific(Longman, 1987). A detailed
analysis of aspects of the origins of the war in the Pacific
can be found in D. Borg and S. Okamoto, Pearl Harbor:
A History. Japanese–American Relations, 1931–41
(Columbia, 1973). For British policy, see P. Lowe,
Great Britain and the Origins of the Pacific War: A Study
of British Far Eastern Policy(Oxford, 1977). A good
analysis appears in R. Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and
American Foreign Policy, 1932–45(Oxford, 1979)
which deals not only with eastern Asia, but with the
whole range of United States policy. An older classic
work on United States foreign policy in Europe and Asia
and American entry into the Second World War is W. L.
Langer and S. E. Gleason, Challenge to Isolation,
1937–40and The Undeclared War, 1940–1(Harper &
Row, 1952–3). Also valuable is D. Reynolds, The
Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, 1937–41
(North Carolina, 1981).
Europe
A collection of essays on the controversy aroused by
A. J. P. Taylor, Origins of the Second World War
(Penguin, 1963) is in E. M. Robertson (ed.), The
Origins of the Second World War (Macmillan, 1971).
A good brief synthesis is P. M. H. Bell, The Origins of
the Second World War in Europe (Arnold, 1997). The
most authoritative treatment of the immediate crisis
years is D. C. Watt, How War Came: The Immediate
Origins of the Second World War, 1938–39 (Mandarin,
1990). A stimulating German survey is K. Hildebrand,
The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich (Batsford, 1973).
A. Adamthwaite provides a valuable study of France
and the Coming of the Second World War, 1936–9 (Cass,
1977). A French view of the coming of the war can be
found in M. Baumont, The Origins of the Second World
War(Yale, 1978). See also J. Néré, The Foreign Policy
of France, 1914–45(Routledge, 1974). British foreign
policy is well surveyed in F. S. Northedge, The Troubled
Giant(Bell, 1966). Detailed analysis of British policy
on the eve of the war from 1937 to 1939 appear in K.
Middlemas, The Diplomacy of Illusion(Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, 1972) and S. Aster, The Making of the Second
World War(Deutsch, 1973). Provocative older books
are M. Gilbert and R. Gott, The Appeasers (Weidenfeld
& Nicolson, 1967) and N. Thompson, The Anti-
appeasers(Oxford, 1971). See also D. C. Watt, Person-
alities and Policies (Longman, 1965). Of general
importance is M. Howard, The Continental Commit-
ment* (Penguin, 1974). Polish policy is set out in A.
M. Cienciala, Poland and the Western Powers, 1938–9
(Routledge, 1968) and in P. Prazmowska, Britain,
Poland and the Eastern Front, 1939(Cambridge, 1987).
Italian policy is discussed in M. Toscano, The Origins
of the Pact of Steel (Johns Hopkins, 1967); E.
Wiskemann, The Rome–Berlin Axis* (2nd edn,
Fontana, 1966); G. Salvemini, Prelude to World War II
(Gollancz, 1953); C. J. Lowe and F. Marzari, Italian
Foreign Policy, 1870–1940(Routledge, 1975); and D.
Mack Smith, Mussolini’s Roman Empire(Longman,
1976). For a Soviet view, see I. Maisky, Who Helped
Hitler?(Hutchinson, 1964). A good survey of the last
two years is C. Thorne, The Approach of War, 1938–9*
(Macmillan, 1967). Specialist studies include J. T.
Emmerson, The Rhineland Crisis (Temple Smith,
1977); J. Gehl, Austria, Germany and the Anschluss
(Greenwood, 1970); K. Robbins, Munich, 1938
(Cassell, 1968); the same subject is covered in great
detail and at length by T. Taylor, Munich: The Price of
Peace(Hodder & Stoughton, 1979).13 THE SECOND WORLD WARAmong the best one-volume histories are P.
Calvocoressi, G. Wint and J. Pritchard, Total War*
(Penguin, 1995); R. A. C. Parker, Struggle for Survival:
The History of the Second World War* (Oxford, 1990),
an outstanding synthesis; M. Gilbert, Second World
War(Collins, 1990); G. L. Weinberg, A World at Arms
(Cambridge, 1994). W. S. Churchill, The Second World
War(6 vols, Cassell, 1948–54) is indispensable for a
feel of the war as seen through Churchill’s eyes.
Indispensable, I.C.B. Dear and M.B.D. Foot. (eds) The
Oxford Companion to the Second World War* (Oxford,
2002). For a Soviet view, see P. N. Pospelov and others,
The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941–5
(Progress, 1974). The classic Western account is J.
Erickson, Stalin War with Germany(2 vols, Weidenfeld
& Nicolson, 1975–83).
Britain at war is also interestingly discussed by P. M.
H. Bell, A Certain Eventuality(London, 1974) and
in H. Pelling, Britain and the Second World War*
(Fontana, 1970). A. Calder presents a vivid portrait in
The People’s War: Britain, 1939–45* (Panther, 1971).
Also good is P. Addison, The Road to 1945* (Quartet,
1977)
R. Paxton, Vichy France(Barrie & Jenkins, 1972); A,
S. Milward, The New Order and the French Economy
(Oxford, 1970); H. R. Kedward, Resistance in Vichy
France, 1940–42(Oxford, 1978) all reveal important
facets of events in France. See also R. Griffiths, Marshal
Pétain(Constable, 1970); J. Isorni, Philippe Pétain
(2 vols, Table Ronde, 1972–3); G. Hirschfeld and P.