In the years between the two great wars, the nations of the world, ravaged by war and depression, struggled to maintain a delicate peace. Torn between pressing social needs -- massive unemployment and the threat of revolutions -- Western Europe played for time in which to repair its economies and to strengthen its governments. No one wanted war. Yet, determined to win the "living space" he was convinced Germany needed, Adolf Hitler made war unavoidable, despite the pronounced reluctance of the rest of the world.

Almost seventy years after the start of World War II, historians Richard Overy and Andrew Wheatcroft return to the question of why the nations of the world found themselves embroiled in conflict once more. Step by step, Overy and Wheatcroft reconstruct the perspective of each country as it marched down the road to war: Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States, each with its own domestic problems and international ambitions.

Hailed in England for its accessibility as well as its scholarship, The Road to War is a handbook for anyone interested in how war came.