After the desolation and destruction of the Great War, everyone expected that a lasting peace would be the primary concern for the rulers of the world. Instead, however, the victors preferred to take revenge and imposed severe, insulting terms in the conditions with the defeated Germany.

The consequences of this strategy were, unfortunately, more than disastrous. The author presents with admirable precision the deadliest conflict in human history and identifies the causes that led to it within the ashes of the First World War. Adolf Hitler exploited the despair and desperation of the German people and managed to gain their blind trust through calculated maneuvers.

By invading Poland, he forced the victors of the Great War to declare war on him, manipulating the European pathologies, and triggered a mechanism which, bolstered by the most poisonous racist ideologies and the most advanced weapons of mass destruction, led to a tragic global conflagration.

With the authority and reliability that distinguishes him, Norman Stone offers readers a concise yet sufficiently comprehensive picture of the causes, escalation, and disastrous consequences of the most terrible conflict that humanity has ever known. A Concise History of the Second World War constitutes an invaluable contribution to our efforts to understand the twentieth century and the war that defined global destinies like no other.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]