THE GERMAN- SOVIET PACT: August 23, 1939; a Nonaggression Pact Prepares the Way for War

This companion piece to Grant's Munich: 1938 echoes the iconoclastic A. J. P. Taylor in suggesting that--given the Allies' low opinion of the Soviets, England's reluctance to enter into a military alliance, and Stalin's suspicion--the German-Soviet pact was not so much a betrayal as a logical move to protect Russian self-interest. In other words, ""in signing the pact with Hitler, the Soviet government had done what Britain and France had clone in Munich less than a year earlier."" Grant covers the background events and diplomatic maneuvering briskly; however readers at this level might find some of the former repetitive and prefer to begin right away with a more broad-based history--even Taylor's Origins of World War II itself. Where special material on this period, or simply an easy-looking format, is needed, Grant will do the job.