This is the second in the ten-volume "Germany and the Second World War" series. Under the auspices of the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Research Institute for Military History), a team of historians has combined a full synthesis of existing material with the latest research to produce what they hope will be a definitive history of the Second World War. This volume surveys the first year of the war deliberately begun by Nazi Germany. The authors examine the train of interconnected political and military events, and set military operations against the background of Hitler's war policy and general aims, both immediate and long term. Their analysis, based on detailed scholarly research, is underpinned by a full apparatus of maps, diagrams and tables. The conflict took a course quite different from that which Hitler had intended, but nevertheless resulted in a series of conquests for the Third Reich. At the same time, the establishment of hegemony on the European continent confronted the aggressor with new problems. ;The work should appeal to scholars and students of 20th-century history, social, political, economic and military historians and those interested in the Second World

This is the first of a ten-volume history of the World War II, written from the German perspective and translated for the first time into English. The five volumes so far published in German take the story to the end of 1941 and have achieved international acclaim as a major contribution to historical study. Under the auspices of the Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Research Institute for Military History), a team of historians has combined a synthesis of existing material with the latest research to produce what will be the definitive history of the Second World War. This volume, "The Build-up of German Aggression", surveys the forces both within and outside Weimar Germany which paved the way for Hitler. The authors examine the systematic preparation for war, from the outset of Nazi rule, through rearmament, economic autarky, diplomacy, and the permeation of Nazism through all levels of German society. They consider the extent to which the movement can be regarded as a continuation of historic German nationalism; the limits of Hitler's involvement with the army and big business; and the lack of co-ordination between the administration and the armed services. The book contends