Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941

"Fateful Choices" surveys the critical decisions of 1940-41, many of which shaped the war: Britain's choice to hang on; Hitler's decision to attack Russia, declare war on America and exterminate the Jews; Mussolini's ambition for his own empire; Stalin's failure to heed the intelligence warning of a German attack, and Japan's slide into a war they had assessed as being one they were likely to lose. The book is full of fascinating insights into the decision-making of the time. Although occasionally the construct is a bit artificial, bypassing the critical periods of 1933 or 1938-39.

Ian Kershaw examines 10 decisions in 1940/41 to consider whether the actors had viable options. Somewhat disappointingly, but rightly, Kershaw concludes that other choices were really not realistic options (with the possible exception of Britain's decision to continue fighting). The Japanese were not going to withdraw from China at that point, for example. The major flaw in Kershaw's approach was to analyze the options available at such a late date (1940/41); so many things had already been put in motion by that date and mostly by the same leaders that the range of action for the next decision was severely limited by what had gone before.

These decisions were:
1. Britain deciding to fight on after the defeat of France.
2. Germany show more deciding to wage war on the Soviet Union.
3. Japan appropriating the colonies of countries at war with, or already defeated by, Germany, and allying itself with Germany and Italy.
4. Italy deciding to invade Greece.
5. America providing aid to England.
6. Stalin ignoring all signs that Germany was about to invade it.
7. America intensifying its assistance to Britain by an "undeclared war" on Germany.
8. Japan attacking the U.S.
9. Germany declaring war against the U.S after Pearl Harbor.
10. Germany putting into operation the Final Solution.

I found Kershaw’s evidence convincing with the exception of his argument that Hitler had little choice but to declare war on the US after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Despite the shortcoming in his central thesis, I recommend the book highly to anyone with an interest in World War Two. His close examination of each of these events takes into view nearly all of the major actors in all of the major theaters of the war. show less

4373. Fateful Choices Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941. by Ian Kershaw (read 23 Oct 2007) This is not a book of original research but Kershaw does a good job of marshalling from secondary sources the story of ten momentous decisions made in 1940 and 1941 and showing how vitally important they were to what this world became. I think he is persuasive in showing why the decisions were made and why they were so tremendously important. One of those decisions, Hitler's decision to declare war on the US after Pearl Harbor has always seemed to me the height of idiocy, but the way Kershaw presents it makes the decision, given Hitler's goofy thinking, more understandable. This book is full of interesting stuff, even though not show more overly riveting. show less

Concise, focusing review of colossal decision on world populations

The newest immensely original undertaking from the historian who gave us the defining two-volume portrait of Hitler, Fateful Choices puts Ian Kershaw's analytical and storytelling gifts on dazzling display. From May 1940 to December 1941, the leaders of the world's six major powers made a series of related decisions that determined the final outcome of World War II and shaped the course of human destiny. As the author examines the connected stories

"For over two years, between the summer of 1940 and the autumn of 1942, the outcome was far from certain. Both Hitler and the Japanesse Leadership knew that the odds would tell againste them in a long war. So it proved. But it was a close-run thing - closer than is often presumed."

Un livre un peu décevant, puisque Kershaw n'amène rien de spécialement nouveau et ses décisions qui ont changé le monde sont bien anodines.