This absorbing study of the first-and decisive-phase of World War II tells not only how events happened but why they happened as they did. Eminent historian John Lukacs presents an extraordinary narrative of these two years, followed by a detailed sequential analysis of the lives of the peoples and then of the political, military, and intellectual relations and events.

"Lukacs's book is consistently interesting, surprising, and provocative."-James Joll, New York Times Book Review

"This dispassionate, humorous, serious, and brilliantly written book marks an important step forward in our understanding of a past that is still within living memory."-Economist

"An excellent, valuable, and highly readable book. . . . It makes both fascinating and extraordinarily valuable reading. It is a major contribution to historical scholarship."-Joseph G. Harrison, Christian Science Monitor

"A brilliant, original study of what this era meant--socially, politically, artistically, intellectually--in the lives of the peoples of Europe. . . . [Lukacs's] grasp of emotional as well as intellectual history is commanding."-New Yorker

"Deserves to be widely read, seriously considered, and vigorously debated."-Gordon Wright, American Historical Review