Economic Diplomacy and the Origins of the Second World War; Germany, Britain, France, and Eastern Europe, 1930-1939

Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1980. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. xvi, 346, [4] pages. Includes List of Tables, Preface, Abbreviations, Appendix, Bibliography, and Index. Previous owner's initials written in ink, in small letters, inside front free endpaper. DJ has minor wear and soiling. David E. Kaiser (born June 7, 1947) is an American historian whose published works have covered a broad range of topics, from European warfare to American League baseball. He was a Professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the United States Naval War College from 1990 to 2012 and has taught at Carnegie Mellon, Williams College, and Harvard University. His works include: Economic Diplomacy and the Origins of the Second World War, Postmortem: New Evidence in the Case of Sacco and Vanzetti (with William Young), Politics and War: European Conflict from Philip II to Hitler, and Epic Season: The 1948 American League Pennant Race. His book, American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War, won the 2001 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award. A discussion of the expansion of German trade with Eastern Europe during the 1930s, and the British and French failure to respond to it. Highlighting the interaction between foreign trade and foreign policy, the author offers a new perspective on the origins of World War 2. Kaiser states that Germany undertook an "economic offensive" in Eastern Europe in 1931 and that the 1938 Munich agreements put that region's economic resources "at Hitler's feet." In the Times Literary Supplement, reviewer Paul M. Kennedy, noting Kaiser's contention that the British and the French should have checked Hitler's influence in Eastern Europe, objected that this critique is based on hindsight. Kennedy maintained that it was not clearly evident prior to 1939 that Hitler's economic aims extended beyond the incorporation of German-speaking peoples within the Reich. He found Kaiser's book a "well-written, widely researched and useful study."