'A gripping analysis of the final days of peace ... indispensable' M. R. D. Foot, The Times

Richard Overy's 1939: Countdown to War re-creates hour-by-hour the last desperate attempts to salvage peace before the outbreak of World War Two.

24 August 1939: The fate of the world is hanging in the balance. Hitler has ambitions to invade Poland and hopes Stalin will now help him. The West must try to stop him. Nothing was predictable or inevitable. The West hoped that Hitler would see sense if they stood firm. Hitler was convinced the West would back down. And both sides acted knowing that they risked being plunged into a war that might spell the end the end of European civilization.

About the Author

Richard Overy has spent much of his distinguished career studying the intellectual, social and military ideas that shaped the cataclysm of the Second World War, particularly in his books The Origins of the Second World War, The Inter-War Crisis, 1919-1939, Why the Allies Won, Russia's War and The Morbid Age. Since 2004 he has been Professor in History at the University of Exeter.

Richard Overy's book, The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, won the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hessell Tiltman Prize.

Reviews
Overy is one of the great historians of the second world war -- Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times This country's most distinguished historian of the Second World War ... Overy's book is easily the best account of Europe's descent into the death and destruction that were Hitler's element -- Michael Burleigh Evening Standard Nail-biting ... with rare narrative verve, he documents the ultimatums, emissaries, letters and increasingly desperate proposals that shuttled across Europe in the countdown to war -- Ian Thomson Independent Even those who think they know it all about how war broke out will learn something from Richard Overy's book -- Simon Heffer Literary Review One of the great historians of this conflict -- Simon Garfield Observer



Book Information
ISBN 9780141041308
Author Richard Overy
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 134g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 10mm