Like [The Guns of August], On Borrowed Time is an excellent overview of the events leading up to World War II, from the Eger Incident on September 13, 1938 tp the declaration by the Soviet Union that Poland no longer existed as a country on September 22, 1939. In a single year, Europe went from a tense peace to all-out war. Mosley covers the major events and players, their known actions and reactions to the rushing tide of events. Very information, readable, and depressing all at the same time. ( )

I thought I knew this period backwards and forwards. But reading the actual diplomatic dispatches provides a level of knowledge unavailable in any other format. The British leadership, i.e., Prime Minister Chamberlain and his aides, come across as venal, anti-Semitic, anti-French, and completely incompetent. The French don't come off any better. Character, in either country's leadership was totally lacking. There are details about middle European events, and most interestingly, close-ups of top Nazis, including Adolf (who had bad breath). What a reader comes away with is the sense the the war could have been prevented numerous times excepting the sheer idiocy of the men involved. Chamberlain, it turns out, had a major crush on Hitler, as did England's Berlin ambassador. Only quibble is that the book could use editing; it could be one-third shorter. ( )