The Second World War by John Keegan

The first chapter of John Keegan's The Second World War is absolutely the best chapter from any history book that I have ever read. It is a concise, insightful, and persuasive examination of what led to World War II.

The simple answer is, of course, World War II was fought to reverse the outcome of World War I. But Keegan turns the question from why this happened to the much more important how it happened. Wars had raged across Europe for millenia prior to the World Wars; and like their predecessors, the two World Wars had myriad cultural, historial, linguistic, and political roots.

But none of the previous wars had involved so many people with so much bloodshed. I'll leave those who are interested on the cliffhanger of Keegan's answer to how. Go to your local library or bookstore and spend the 30-45 minutes reading the beginning chapter. You'll learn something, I promise; and what's more awesome than that?