> Skip to content
  • Published: 5 May 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141014180
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 672
  • RRP: $42.99
Categories:

Fateful Choices

Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941




Gripping, profound and frightening, Fateful Choices re-examines the central dramas and dilemmas of the Second World War between 1940 and 1941

Ian Kershaw's Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-41 offers a penetrating insight into a series of momentous political decisions that shaped the course of the Second World War.
The hurricane of events that marked the opening of the Second World War meant that anything could happen. For the aggressors there was no limit to their ambitions; for their victims a new Dark Age beckoned. Over the next few months their fates would be determined.
In Fateful Choices Ian Kershaw re-creates the ten critical decisions taken between May 1940, when Britain chose not to surrender, and December 1941, when Hitler decided to destroy Europe's Jews, showing how these choices would recast the entire course of history.
'Powerfully argued ... important ... this book actually alters our perspective of the Second World War'
Andrew Roberts
'This fascinating, closely-argued book adds to our understanding of a terrible war'
Alan Massie
'A compelling re-examination of the conflict ... Kershaw displays here those same qualities of scholarly rigour, careful argument and sound judgement that he brought to bear so successfully in his life of Hitler'
Richard Overy
'A splendidly lucid and impeccably argued exposition of the greatest political decisions of the Second World War'
Max Hastings
'How fortunate that it is Ian Kershaw bringing his immense knowledge and clarity of thought to the task ... brilliantly explained ... an immensely wise book'
Anthony Beevor
Ian Kershaw (b. 1943) was Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield from 1989-2008, and is one of the world's leading authorities on Hitler. His books include The 'Hitler Myth', his two volume biography Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis, and Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941. He was knighted in 2002.
%%%Ian Kershaw's Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-41 offers a penetrating insight into a series of momentous political decisions that shaped the course of the Second World War.

The hurricane of events that marked the opening of the Second World War meant that anything could happen. For the aggressors there was no limit to their ambitions; for their victims a new Dark Age beckoned. Over the next few months their fates would be determined.

In Fateful Choices Ian Kershaw re-creates the ten critical decisions taken between May 1940, when Britain chose not to surrender, and December 1941, when Hitler decided to destroy Europe's Jews, showing how these choices would recast the entire course of history.

'Powerfully argued ... important ... this book actually alters our perspective of the Second World War'
Andrew Roberts

'This fascinating, closely-argued book adds to our understanding of a terrible war'
Alan Massie

'A compelling re-examination of the conflict ... Kershaw displays here those same qualities of scholarly rigour, careful argument and sound judgement that he brought to bear so successfully in his life of Hitler'
Richard Overy

'A splendidly lucid and impeccably argued exposition of the greatest political decisions of the Second World War'
Max Hastings

'How fortunate that it is Ian Kershaw bringing his immense knowledge and clarity of thought to the task ... brilliantly explained ... an immensely wise book'
Anthony Beevor

Ian Kershaw (b. 1943) was Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield from 1989-2008, and is one of the world's leading authorities on Hitler. His books include The 'Hitler Myth', his tw

  • Published: 5 May 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141014180
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 672
  • RRP: $42.99
Categories:

About the author

Ian Kershaw

Ian Kershaw is Professor of Modern history at the University of Sheffield. For services to history he was given the German award of the Federal Cross of Merit in 1994. he was knighted in 2002 and awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2004.
He was historical advisor to three BBC series: The Nazis: A Warning From History, War of the Century and Auschwitz.
His most recent books are Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris and 1936-1945: Nemesis, which received the Wolfson Literary Award for History and the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for the Political Book of the Year, and was joint winner of the inaugural British Academy Book Prize; Making Friends with hitler: Lord Londonberry and Britain's Road to War, which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography in 2005; and, most recently, Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941.

Also by Ian Kershaw

See all