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The Road to Total War
Examines the various factors that impelled leaders on both sides of the conflict in World War II to respond to immediate problems with actions resulting in effects that were often neither planned nor foreseen. Both Great Britain and Germany drifted into an escalation that ended in the wholesale bombardment of cities and civilian populations, when neither had originally planned any such action, and serves as the author’s lesson to show us how decisionmakers can respond once more to provocations and counterreactions. Emotional pressures, the fog of war, and judgments blurred by wishful thinking can produce decisions, even self-destructive decisions, and lead down an inexorable path to all-out, total war. More than thirty years after its initial publication, and to celebrate RAND’s 60th Anniversary, RAND is proud to bring this classic work back into print in paperback and digital formats.
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Pages: 212
ISBN/EAN: 978-0-8330-4228-6
Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.
Part One
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Prefatory Material, Chapter One, Part One: Chapters Two – Nine
Part Two
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Part Two: Chapters Ten – Twelve, Appendices, Index
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Contents
Chapter One:
Introduction: The Problem
Part One
Chapter Two:
Prewar Developments — Britain
Chapter Three:
Prewar Developments — Germany
Chapter Four:
Blitzkrieg and Sitzkrieg
Chapter Five:
The Transition to Total War
Chapter Six:
Sowing the Wind
Chapter Seven:
Ends and Means
Chapter Eight:
The Whirlwind
Chapter Nine:
Epilogue
Part Two
Chapter Ten:
The Asymmetrical Attitudes of the Two Sides
Chapter Eleven:
Pressures for Escalation
Chapter Twelve:
Speculations on the Future
Appendix A:
A Note on German Explanations for the Assault on London
Appendix B:
Selective Chronology
Appendix C:
Sources
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