Abraham, David, The Collapse of the Weimar Republic: Political Economy and Crisis (2nd edn., New York, 1986). An immensely stimulating marxisant interpretation which sparked off an acerbic controversy, particularly with Turner (see below).
Acton, Edward, Re-thinking the Russian Revolution (London, 1990). A lively and thoughtful survey of recent controversies.
Bessel, Richard, Germany after the First World War (Oxford,
1993). A path-breaking examination of the political traumas suffered in the wake of defeat.
Boyce, Robert, and Robertson, Esmonde M. (eds.), Paths to War: New Essays on the Origins of the Second World War (London, 1989). A collection of stimulating essays, with a commendably sane introduction.
Bullock, Alan, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (2nd edn., Harmondsworth, 1962). Remains the classic biography.
Carr, E. H., The Twilight of Comintern, 1930-1935 (London, 1982). Illuminates the internal divisions and weaknesses of international communism.
Carr, Raymond, The Spanish Tragedy (London, 1977). A strikingly elegant and perceptive essay on every aspect of the Spanish Civil War.
Carr, William, Arms, Autarky and Aggression: A Study in German Foreign Policy, 1933-1939 (London, 1972). A concise and intelligent interpretation of the escalation of German ambitions.
Deutscher, Isaac, Stalin: A Political Biography (2nd edn., 1967). A startlingly compelling interpretation of why Stalin was inevitable.
Oxford, 1967). An unsurpassed masterpiece of critical interpretation.
The Unfinished Revolution: Russia, 1917-1967 (Oxford,
Geary, Dick, European Labour Protest, 1848-1939 (London,
1981). A trenchantly argued and richly learned comparative account.
Graham, Helen, and Preston, Paul (eds.), The Popular Front in Europe (London, 1986). An accessible survey which goes far beyond the usual Franco-Spanish perspective on the Popular Front.
Grand, Alexander de, Italian Fascism: Its Origins and Development (Lincoln, Neb., 1982). A masterpiece of lucid synthesis.
Jackson, Julian, The Politics of Depression in France, 1932-1936 (Cambridge, 1985). A clear and sensible analysis of the economic difficulties underlying French politics in the 1930s.
-The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy,
1934-1938 (Cambridge, 1988). A comprehensive survey which coolly debunks many myths about the period.
James, Harold, The German Slump: Politics and Economics, 1924-1936 (Oxford, 1986). A powerfully argued, if somewhat technical, analysis of the conflicting economic problems afflicting Germany in this period.
Kershaw, Ian, Hitler (London, 1991). A compelling and original interpretation of the nature of Hitler’s charismatic rule.
-The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of
Interpretation (3rd edn., London, 1993). Disentangles the most complex issues with authority and clarity.
Kindleberger, Charles P., The World in Depression, 1929-1939 (London, 1973). A standard, but quite technical, account of the underlying instability of the inter-war monetary system.
Luebbert, Gregory M., Liberalism, Fascism or Social Democracy: Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe (New York, 1991). A complex but rewarding comparative analysis.
And readable work marred only by a tendency to play up Mussolini’s buffoonery.
Lyttleton, Adrian, The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919-1929 (London, 1973). A highly detailed and incisively intelligent account.
McMillan, James F., Twentieth Century France: Politics and Society 1898-1991 (London, 1992). A wide-ranging and well-written survey.
Mack Smith, Denis, Italy: A Modern History (2nd edn., Ann Arbor, 1969). A powerfully argued and illuminating interpretation from a liberal perspective.
-Mussolini’s Roman Empire (London, 1976). A tightly
Argued expose of the inconsistencies and irresponsibility of Mussolini’s foreign policy.
¦Mussolini: A Biography (London, 1982). An important
Maier, Charles S., Recasting Bourgeois Europe: Stabilization in France, Germany, and Italy in the Decade after World War I (Princeton, 1975). An impressively original comparative study of responses to the dislocation caused by the First World War.
Mayer, Arno J., Dynamics of Counterrevolution in Europe, 1870-1956: An Analytical Framework (New York, 1971). A brilliantly argumentative reinterpretation of authoritarianism and fascism.
-Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking: Containment and
Counterrevolution at Versailles, 1918-1919 (London, 1967). These two volumes argue the case for the incursion of class divisions into international politics.
Medvedev, Roy, Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism (New York, 1971). A disturbing denunciation of Stalinism from a Russian Marxist.
Overy, Richard, with Andrew Wheatcroft, The Road to War (London, 1989). A wide-ranging and stimulating survey.
Peukert, Detlev J. K., Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life (Harmondsworth, 1989). A provocatively original interpretation.
-The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity
(Harmondsworth, 1993). A brilliant, if occasionally abstract, essay by one of German’s most original historians.
Lavishly illustrated interpretative essay.
Preston, Paul, The Coming of The Spanish Civil War (2nd edn., London, 1994). A study of the interrelationship between social conflict and national politics in the breakdown of democracy.
-Franco: A Biography (London, 1993). A study of the
Banality of evil which none the less shows that Franco was not just a sphinx without a riddle.
¦ The Spanish Civil War (London, 1986). A provocative and
Seton-Watson, Christopher, Italy from Liberalism to Fascism (London, 1967). A massively comprehensive and urbanely written work.
Stevenson, David, The First World War in International Politics (Oxford, 1989). A thorough and judicious weighing of war aims and peace aims and of the mistakes of politicians as well as soldiers.
Turner, Henry Ashby, Jr., German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler (New York, 1985). A massively researched, densely detailed, yet fascinatingly controversial account of the hostility of industry to the Weimar Republic.
Watt, Donald Cameron, How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939 (London, 1989). A vividly written and authoritative panoramic view.
World History
