Pretty much all books about WWII begin with "Hitler was crazy and pure evil, consequently there is no point in analyzing his actions and decisions..." But this book is primarily about the diplomatic maneuverings between England, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia in the 1930's, with the politically incorrect assumption that Hitler was a rational actor pursuing actions which were at first glance in Germany's best interests at the time, who was more interested in killing the Red Beast in the East than fighting the 'civilized' nations of Western Europe. Buchanan's point is, essentially, that the Second World War occurred due to a series of incredible diplomatic blunders by France and England (which, among other things, drove Italy into Germany's orbit despite Mussolini's extreme disdain of Hitler), starting with locking Germany out of the Colonialism game in the late 19th century, proceeding with the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles, and culminating in the mid 30's with a great bundle of blunders. Buchanan does agree that appeasement was one of these mistakes, but by 1938 and the partition of Czechoslovakia it was among the least of them made by the Western allies.

I would highly recommend it, particularly to everyone reading this since the book is *entirely* about Diplomacy and Realpolitik. Except for the 100 pages or so dedicated to portraying Churchill as a warmongering psychopath, which is odd considering that Pat praises English civilization and imperialism as one of the great goods of world history (an absolutely bizarre contention coming from someone of Irish descent, but what do I know).