Political and Military Leadership in the World Wars: The Closest Concert

The book approaches the World Wars and the decades between them as a single unit in modern history, highlighting the establishment, revision, and collapse of the Versailles settlement and the League of Nations system between 1919 and 1939. The strategic thought of the interwar years is especially instructive in assessing the prosecution of WWII, as the military ventures of Fascist Italy and Japan pointed toward future developments. Britain, France, and the United States began an incremental conversion to new approaches to war in the air and on the sea.

Format: Hardback
Length: 214 pages
Publication date: 17 March 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive book delves into the intricate tapestry of modern history, encompassing the two World Wars and the intervening decades. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of these events, recognizing that understanding the causes and conduct of the 1939-1945 war requires a comprehensive grasp of the issues left unresolved in the 1914-18 conflict. The pivotal period between the World Wars, known as the interwar years, witnessed the establishment, revision, and eventual collapse of the Versailles settlement and the League of Nations system. The 1919 settlement, initially contested by Fascist Italy, began to unravel irreparably in 1931 with Japan's incursion into Manchuria. Consequently, the strategic thinking of this era holds immense significance in assessing the prosecution of World War II, as the military ventures of these two revisionist powers foreshadowed future developments even before Germany introduced its novel approach to warfare in Eastern and Western Europe.

Concurrently, Britain, France, and the United States embarked on a gradual transformation toward new strategies of air and sea warfare. The interwar decades can be best characterized as a period of calibrated rearmament driven by assumptions about the likelihood of future conflicts and the nature of their prosecution. This comprehensive analysis sheds light on the complex web of events that shaped the world between the two World Wars, providing a deeper understanding of the events that led to the outbreak of the second conflict and its devastating consequences.

Weight: 460g
Dimension: 157 x 237 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367720995