Review

General Books

In this informative and concise study of the foreign policies of Eastern European states during the two decades preceding World War II Anita J. Prazmowska reaches the same disheartening conclusion that Henry Kissinger argued in his book, Diplomacy; that the foreign policy options open to the small nations of interwar Europe were few and far between. They were placed, in varying degrees, in the invidious position of choosing either association with Germany or the Soviet Union. She adds: "Whatever choice they made, it was inevitable that the other side was going to view their choice as a hostile act. Adherence to one side offered some prospect of security, but would automatically incur the hostility of the other one. At the same time it was realized that staying neutral and refusing to choose gave no guarantee of security." (p. 228)	1
The book, part of a series called The Making of the Twentieth Century, describes in detail how the nations of Eastern Europe—Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic States—grappled with the limitations of geography and the burden of their own historical biases. Prazmowska aims to demonstrate that the nations of Eastern Europe were not powerless victims held hostage to the fickle foreign policy of Britain and France but active participants in the foreign policy debates of the period. She argues that decisions made in Paris and London had far less impact on Eastern Europe than the decisions made in Berlin and Moscow. She convincingly demonstrates that the governments of Eastern Europe were focused on the perceived threat from the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, most of them ultimately throwing their lot in with the Third Reich as the pressure intensified. While Prazmowska is sympathetic to the dilemmas that faced the statesmen of Eastern Europe, she also does not hide their foibles and weaknesses such as their deep prejudices, petty jealousies, and opportunistic impulses.	2
The author brings a wealth of knowledge about Eastern Europe and a fresh perspective to the history of the interwar period. Her impressive command of this complex subject is matched by a no-nonsense, fast-paced narrative that condenses the topic into a book that would work well in a college level course in diplomatic history or a seminar on European relations during the interwar period. The book is on the whole well organized with a chapter on each of the countries mentioned above as well as a chapter on the Soviet Union and one on France and Britain (though I think that this chapter might have worked better at the end of the book). Eastern Europe and the Origins of the Second World War may not break significant new ground, but it is a very good summary of an important and complicated topic and thus a welcome addition to the historiography of the history of Europe during the interwar period.	3
Groton, Massachusetts Thomas Lamont

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