This collection presents in slightly revised form a selection of essays dealing with German history in the twentieth century and history's greatest war, which Germany initiated in 1939. One essay (Chapter 16) first appeared in German. It was scheduled to be included in a volume in honor of the eightieth birthday of Admiral Arleigh Burke, but I translated it when the Naval Institute declined to publish that book; the essay appears here on the basis of the original text. The appendix deals with fundamental problems in the writing of recent history. Originally given as a paper at the Ranke Conference in 1986, it was omitted from the conference volume at the insistence of Syracuse University Press. The issues it raises are, if anything, more pressing now than they were when I called attention to them a decade ago.

Designed to illuminate specific aspects of German and world history, the texts, some originally given as talks, others written for periodicals, have been slightly revised to call attention to some recent literature which deals with their subject. All are reprinted with the permission of the prior publishers. More details on the background of World War II may be found in my two volumes dealing with that subject: The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany, both now reprinted in paperback by Humanities Press with a new preface. The war itself is covered as a whole in my A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, published by Cambridge University Press.