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Fateful Choices (Hardcover)

by Ian Kershaw (Author) "'Future generations may deem it noteworthy that the supreme question of whether we should fight on alone never found a place upon the War Cabinet..." (more)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 656 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press (HC); 1 edition (Jun 5 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594201234
ISBN-13: 978-1594201233
Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 16.5 x 5.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 976 g

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #82,396 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Tracing the thought processes behind crucial turning points in WWII's most crucial 19 months, Kershaw, the author of a major biography of Hitler and professor of modern history at the University of Sheffield, reminds us that nothing in that titanic struggle was predetermined. Events might have run a very different course had Great Britain decided to negotiate peace with Hitler in June 1940, or if Japan had attacked the Soviet Union from the east as Germany invaded from the west in June 1941. Kershaw shows that Germany's war on two fronts and Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor, though ultimately disastrous for those countries, were the results of chains of reasoning based on political and military goals, however despicable. Though the author makes deep, intelligent use of archival materials, he provides little new information. Rather, his analysis focuses on the structure of decision making and its consequences. Kershaw depicts Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union as severely hampered by one man giving the orders, getting input only from subordinates too fearful to say anything he didn't want to hear. The slower democratic process enabled many voices to be heard and better informed judgments to be made by Churchill and Roosevelt. This subtext adds a note of hope to a text depicting one of humanity's darkest periods. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Kershaw is an esteemed British historian, best known for his definitive two-volume biography of Hitler. Here he examines a series of decisions that was instrumental in determining the course of World War II, including the one made by the British cabinet to refuse to make a deal with Hitler after the fall of France, Hitler's decision to invade the Soviet Union, and Stalin's choice to ignore strong evidence that a German attack was imminent. Kershaw has loaded his account with fascinating details. As he illustrates, British popular opinion generally supported compromise (or appeasement) with Hitler before Munich; even within the cabinet, there was support for an understanding with Hitler after the defeat of France. And on the eve of the German invasion, a Russian agent, code-named "the Corsican," provided clear and specific proof of the coming attack, which Stalin discounted. This is a well-done, riveting, and often surprising examination of these critical choices. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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'Future generations may deem it noteworthy that the supreme question of whether we should fight on alone never found a place upon the War Cabinet agenda. Read the first page

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5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at perhaps the most important years of the 20th century, Aug 19 2009

By	A. Volk - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Fateful Choices (Paperback)

Kershaw examines how and why the governments of Germany, Britain, Italy, the USSR, Japan, and the United States made their decisions that led to the eventual outcome of World War 2. This book focuses primarily on the choices themselves, with very limited speculation about what might have happened had they made different choices. In this regard, the author is very cautious, correctly stating that uncertainty becomes ever greater the farther into the future one speculates. It's a fun game, but it it isn't the focus of this book.

Really, what stands out is how constrained the choices of the various governments really were given their philosophical outlooks. Any major changes in their decisions would have ultimately required radical shifts in their ideologies. Particularly the dictatorships and Japan. Arguably, Britain had the greatest freedom of action when they decided to continue fighting, but even they faced the likelihood of crippling sanctions should they have sued for peace. What also stands out is just how much prestige played a role in deciding government actions. Rational discussion (admittedly challenging for the Axis and Soviets) was relatively rare between the different countries. This is largely because their different, mostly aggressive, ideologies put them on a collision course.

The ten choices in the book include:

1- Great Britain Decides to Fight On (excellent chapter)
2- Hitler Decides to Attack the Soviet Union (good, but lacks discussion of the crucial decision to delay the attack on Moscow in favor of securing the Ukraine- perhaps the single most important decision of the war!)
3- Japan Decides to Seize the Golden Opportunity (OK, relatively slow)
4- Mussolini Decides to Grab His Share (Italy was a relative non-player, and this shows how inept they were at all levels)
5- Roosevelt Decides to Help Britain (of course, it was is the US's best interest to keep Britain alive and between them and the Germans)
6- Stalin Decides to Trust Hitler (because the alternative was the crushing invasion that ended up happening anyhow- he was a fool for not preparing his army, but I doubt if the USSR could ever have been taken unless Stalin caved with the hypothetical loss of Moscow)
7- Roosevelt Decides to Wage Undeclared War (I thought it was really, REALLY ironic that it was the Republicans who didn't want to go to war- I guess they only do that when there's oil and money involved!)
8- Japan Decides to Go to War (the choice was losing face versus the shot at global independence/super power- their ideology forced the war they really knew they couldn't win)
9- Hitler Decides to Declare War on the USA (the author claims this is one of Hitler's most widely criticized decisions- out of all the decisions in this book, this was easily the most obvious and most forced- War was inevitable, and this let Hitler put more pressure on the US to hopefully hinder their inevitable building of power)
10- Hitler Decides on Genocide (well, Hitler didn't specifically decide on anything, but he and the Nazis were pretty clear on their views)

All said and done, this book makes for an interesting read. I would have liked more depth on the first and second decisions. The author, like many authors, claims Stalingrad was the turning point of the war. I would contend that there were two: Britain standing alone stopped the Germans from winning the war (for the world), and Hitler attacking the USSR caused the Germans to lose the war. Three if you want to include Japan attacking the US caused them to lose the war. The rest of the decisions were undoubtedly important, but I think they had little influence over and beyond those three main decisions. Had Britain capitulated, had Hitler taken Moscow, had Japan negotiated a peaceful withdrawal from China, the war would've been incredibly different. Mussolini was a sideshow, Stalin's trust would have led to a tougher early fight, but still an invasion, and Roosevelt would've been compelled, one way or another to get involved once Great Britain kept on fighting.

At least, that's my opinion. I'm not spoiling any of the book, which is aimed at a medium-level audience. It helps to know something about the war, but it's not critical, and there is enough depth that even those familiar with it should find new information here. Well written, and on a very important set of topics, this book is well worth the read.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed, thought-provoking, worthwhile history, Aug 12 2009

By	One Tonne (Waterloo, Canada) - See all my reviews

Ian Kershaw takes on an ambitious project here, choosing 10 critical decisions that took place in 1940-41, before World War II had reached its turning point. Nevertheless, Kershaw proposes these decisions pretty much determined the final outcome of the conflict, even though there was much still to come.

I'm not qualified to really analyze this work in a authoritative manner so I'll simply share some observations that are loosely related.

Kershaw is very good at steering away from irresponsible, speculative talk about what might have been. This is not a book which draws far-reaching conclusions about what would have occurred should such and such a decision not have been made. This resistance to speculation greatly enhances the trustworthiness of his analysis when he does make suggestions about where things may have gone had a different decision been made.

This is also a very good read if you want to see within the pages of a single book an authoritative look at the workings of each of the 6 major governments involved in the conflict. The strengths and weaknesses in each government's internal culture come into play to determine the capability of making a decision and also how likely the decision is to be the right one. Democracy tends to have a slower decision making process than more authoritarian structures, but that decision is more likely to make the most effective use of the available information. Hence the competition of ideas within the US and Britain ultimately led to better decisions.

This is a high-level look at what happened - if you want a story of what happened in the trenches, that's not what this book is about. As a high-level book analyzing decisions, I have no complaints, hence 5 stars.

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