"This is the Europe that began with the high hopes of the League of Nations and ended with mindless destruction. The Europe of Briand and Stresmann becomes the Europe of Hitler and Stalin, of Laval and Mussolini. The economic recovery of the early twenties falters and fails. Mass unemployment, totalitarianism and Nazi barbarity sweep in an obliterating tide over a Europe which has accepted the inevitability of war."--From book jacket.