Historians like to be revisionists but it is hard to see how anyone could conceive a revisionist overview of the first half of the 20th century. Causes may be debated, consequences disputed, but from the perspective of the second decade of the next century, the years 1914-1949 in European history appear overwhelmingly as they did at the time: a period of unimaginable destruction and cruelty, of war and genocide, degradation and famine. Thus Ian Kershaw remarks at the start of his superb account: “The continent, which for nearly one hundred years after the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 had prided itself on being the apogee of civilisation, fell between 1914 and 1945 into the pit of barbarism.”
Why did this happen? The traditional answer, endorsed and meticulously explained by Kershaw, is that the war that broke out unnecessarily but not unpredictably in August 1914 led to such destruction – of life, economies, values, systems, borders and dynasties – that the years of “peace” which followed were ones of near constant instability and, in retrospect, only a brief pause before an even worse conflagration broke out in September 1939. Beneath this, Kershaw locates the causes of catastrophe in four interlocking elements unique to these decades: “(1) an explosion of ethnic-racist nationalism; (2) bitter and irreconcilable demands for territorial revisionism; (3) acute class conflict – now given concrete focus through the Bolshevik revolution in Russia; and (4) a protracted crisis of capitalism (which many observers thought was terminal).”
These toxic elements – promoted and exploited by history’s most notorious demagogues – led to the hell-on-earth experience of so many Europeans and a body count of incomprehensible proportions. More than 60 million people died during the second world war; more were civilians than soldiers and around 6 million were Jews, many systematically murdered in purpose-built death factories. Yet, Kershaw argues, the horrors of the first half of the 20th century were not inevitable. Had the great powers stepped back from the brink in the summer of 1914 there is no telling which path Europe might have taken. Had the American stock market not crashed, presaging the Great Depression, democracy in Germany might have survived. And had Britain and France stood up to Hitler at the start of his drive to achieve German hegemony, the second world war may well have been avoided.
As an expert on modern Germany, Kershaw is well qualified to write the history of Europe’s darkest years. Though his book ranges across the continent, there was one country which above all determined the fate not just of Europe but of the world. From chief belligerent in 1914, to the focus point for nascent cold war tensions, Germany was the linchpin of European events. Kershaw provides a flawless analytical narrative of Germany’s journey from military monarchy, through anarchic democracy, to the summit of power and barbarity under Hitler. He is equally strong on Russia, whose revolutionary convulsions between 1917 and the late 1930s produced a death toll which could only be exceeded by the apocalyptic battles of the “Great Patriotic War”. While Germany’s political revolution was massively to disturb the peace of Europe, Russia’s, contrary to the fears of western politicians, remained remarkably isolated.
Ultimately, it is unfair to single out Kershaw’s analysis of any one country or event for special praise, since he has achieved the remarkable feat of drawing together and comparing the histories of the entire continent, during its most turbulent years, into one highly readable volume. His thoughtful and comprehensive history is likely to become a classic.
Tim Bouverie is a political producer for Channel 4 News.
To Hell and Back is published by Allen Lane (£30). Click here to buy it for £24
