The Drift to War, 1922-1939

In details amassed from memoirs, correspondence, interviews and official archives, British historian Lamb ( Montgomery in Europe ) retraces political events from the 1919 Versailles peace treaty to the outbreak of WW II in 1939. In an interesting if dismal chronicle, Lamb reveals Anthony Eden's bickering with Neville Chamberlain and Mussolini's on-and-off friendly overtures to England, occurring as Hitler pronounced reparations demanded of Germany ``unpayable,'' defied the League of Nations and marshaled the Reich to expansion and revenge. England's and France's defensive alliances with Russia and Italy were thwarted by anticommunist sentiment and by Italy's conquest of Ethiopia and military role in Spain. Most important, by Lamb's account, were the pervasive pacifist outlook in the West and resultant political timidity among British leaders, who with French cooperation might have blocked Hitler's bloodless conquests of Austria and Czechoslovakia and driven him from power early on. Photos. (June)