Was Mussolini's alliance with Hitler really foreordained? Could Italy have been kept out of World War II? Did the policy of England's Anthony Eden really push Mussolini into Hitler's arms instead of luring him back to his former policy of friendship with Great Britain? These are some of the intriguing questions that Richard Lamb asks in the course of examining Mussolini's foreign policy toward Germany on the one hand and Britain and France on the other. Surprisingly, Mussolini began with a deep distrust of Hitler and feelings of friendship toward England as well as France, countries he felt might stand up to Hitler's aggressive intent. He also despised Hitler's anti-Semitism. But some disastrous miscalculations, especially by Anthony Eden, who later headed Britain's Foreign Office, set the course for the eventual conflagration. These are the shocking conclusions that Lamb-in a revisionist assessment of Mussolini's diplomatic blunders in his relations with the other powers in Europe-reached after studying documents that have been inaccessible for more than half a century. Here is an indispensable new look by a leading historian at a crucial phase of World War II.

16 Pages of Black-and-White Photographs Notes/Bibliography/Index