Traces the history of the Baltic republics in the twentieth century, and discusses the origins of Baltic independence

This book is the first to highlight the importance of the Baltic region in the approach to war in 1939. Amid the welter of publications on the origins of the Second World War none has sought hitherto to focus on the Baltic region, where peace finally and irrevocably broke down. Central strategic and international issues of the interwar years are thus illuminated from a fresh perspective by a distinguished team of specialists that includes a number of native Baltic historians. The themes discussed by the contributors acquired renewed relevance, as the Baltic republics asserted their rejection of incorporation within the Soviet Union following the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939. The Baltic and the outbreak of the Second World War makes an important contribution to the perennial debate on the immediate causes of the conflict, and should interest specialists in a variety of fields within international relations, modern European and diplomatic history.

This is the only short study in English to survey Germany's foreign policy from a German viewpoint across the entire inter-war period. The approach, which sets Germany in her full European context, is not narrowly diplomatic; and it gives as much attention to the Weimar years of the 1920s as it gives to the more familiar story of Germany's international relations under the Third Reich. John Hiden has now thoroughly revised his text to take account of new scholarship since the book first appeared in 1977.

Traces the history of the Baltic republics in the twentieth century, and discusses the origins of Baltic independence

Product Description: A revised, updated survey of the vast amount of literature produced on the Third Reich, this now covers material written between 1983 and 1988. The book is no mere bibliography but a product of the debate between the authors and the variety of views and arguments put forward by other historians...read more