1939: Countdown to War

158 pp. A brilliantly concise narrative of the days leading to the outbreak of history's greatest conflagration, 1939 takes readers hour by hour through the nail-biting decisions that determined the fate of millions. Richard Overy, a leading historian of the period, masterfully recreates the jockeying for advantage that set Europe's greatest powers on a collision course. Would Stalin join Hitler in a bid to divide Poland and flout the West' Would Britain and France succeed in forcing Germany to reason' And how far would a defiant Poland push its claim to exist' In the summer of 1939, the course of events was anything but assured, as this exceptionally absorbing book drives home.