Published in England as: 1939: a people's history : 'the war nobody wanted.'

September 1938: 'So, no war!' -- October 1938: 'More popular than Hitler' -- November 1938: 'We are being hunted like hares' -- Winter 1938/1939: 'Does conscription mean that the men will have to go away?' -- Spring 1939: 'It's Hitler again: but don't worry!' -- April/May 1939: 'We all love him very, very much' -- June/July 1939: 'Fine, fine, fine. Blue and sunshine everywhere' -- 1-22 August 1939: 'To die for Danzig?' -- 23-31 August 1939: 'Grandmother is dead' -- 1-3 September 1939: 'So the madness unfolds'

"A best-selling historian's chronicle of the dramatic months from the Munich Agreement to Hitler's invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II. In the autumn of 1938, Europe believed in the promise of peace. But only a year later, the fateful decisions of just a few men had again led Europe to a massive world war. Drawing on contemporary diaries, memoirs, and newspapers, as well as recorded interviews, 1939 is a narrative account of what the coming of the Second World War felt like to those who lived through it. Frederick Taylor, author of renowned histories of the Berlin Wall and the bombing of Dresden, highlights the day-to-day experiences of ordinary citizens as well as those who were at the height of power in Germany and Britain. Their voices lend an intimate flavor to this often-surprising account of the period and reveal a marked disconnect between government and people, for few people in either country wanted war. 1939 is a vivid and richly peopled narrative of Europe's slide into the horrors of war and a powerful warning for our own time."--