To Hell and back

This history covers Europe from 1914 to 1949, a single continuous era of war and upheaval that has no precedent in human history. It is the twentieth-century volume of the Penguin History of Europe series, written by Ian Kershaw.

The account starts with the outbreak of the First World War and moves through the rise of Hitler to the aftermath of the Second World War. Kershaw profiles the key decision makers and traces how the violent shocks of war reached the whole continent and redirected its history.

Kershaw identifies four causes of the catastrophe. The first is an explosion of ethnic-racist nationalism. The second is bitter, irreconcilable demands to redraw territorial borders. The third is acute class conflict, given a concrete focus by the Bolshevik Revolution. The fourth is a protracted crisis of capitalism.

The book is a comprehensive, continent-wide study rather than a history of any single nation. It suits readers who want one framework for both world wars and the years between them, and who want to understand a period whose effects are still felt today.