This bibliography represents only a fraction of the
immense, rich and varied literature concerned
with the history of the world from the twentieth
to the twenty-first century. On the whole I have
concentrated on books available in English –
either written in that language or in translation.
(English has become something of a universal lan-
guage but that does not mean of course that all
the most important works of scholarship are avail-
able in English.) It is fortunate that many books
have appeared in paperback and these are marked
with an asterisk. Hardcover editions of those
paperbacks which are out of print are frequently
available in libraries. In the first instance I have
chosen books which provide an overview of large
subjects, as these are likely to be particularly
useful to the student and general reader. The
main difficulty is to know how many books of
detailed scholarship additionally to cite. In com-
piling not too long a reading list, I have made
some pretty arbitrary judgements. The sugges-
tions made here should not, therefore, be
regarded as including all the more important
books. My aim has been a different one: to
provide a list of further reading which will intro-
duce the reader to some of the complexities and
controversies of interpretation which syntheses
tend to iron out. I should have liked to mention
all the books from which I have profited, but
unfortunately that is not practicable. This is not
so much a bibliography, then, as a useful starting
point for further study. (Quotations from the
papers of Neville Chamberlain are cited by per-
mission of the University of Birmingham, and
quotations from the unpublished Goebbels diaries
are from the microfilm at Stanford University.)CONTENTS
page1 General Histories 959
2 Some General National Histories 959
3 Origins and Course of First World War 962
4 The Russian Revolution, 1917 962
5 Peacemaking and Diplomacy in the 1920s 962
6 China and Japan and the West before
the Second World War 963
7 The Depression Years: The United
States, Britain and France 963
8 Italy and the Rise of Fascism 964
9 The Soviet Union: General, and the
Stalin Era 964
10 Spain and the Civil War 965
11 Germany: The Weimar Republic and
the Third Reich 965
12 The Origins of War in Asia and Europe 965
13 The Second World War 966
14 Western Europe: Post-war Recovery
and Growth 967
15 The Cold War 968
16 The United States during the Post-war Years 969
17 The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
since the Second World War 970
18 The Middle East 971
19 The Indian Subcontinent 972
20 The Lands of the Pacific 972
21 Africa 974
22 Latin America 974
23 The United Nations and the European
Community 975
24 Some General Reference Works 975SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING