ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the period between 1918 and 1945, years witnessing among other things the historic peacemaking at Versailles, the rise of fascism, the early stages of co-existence between communist and capitalist societies, the advent to power of Adolf Hitler, the path to the Second World War, the brutal onslaught on the Jewish peoples and the final high drama of Germany’s defeat and partition. It explains Weimar era, giving due and necessary attention to National Socialism but emphatically not at the expense of observing potentially constructive developments during the 1920s. The book also focuses on major themes and debates and follows them in most cases right through from the 1920s to the 1930s and indeed into the war years.
