Overview

Shedding light on the origins of the Second World War in Europe, Stalin's Gamble aims to create a historical narrative of the relations of the USSR with Britain, France, the United States, Poland, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Romania during the 1930s. The book explores the Soviet Union's efforts to organize a defensive alliance against Nazi Germany, in effect rebuilding the anti-German Entente of the First World War. Drawing on extensive research in Soviet as well as Western archives, Michael Jabara Carley offers an in-depth account of the diplomatic manoeuvrings which surrounded the rise of Hitler and Soviet efforts to construct an alliance against future German aggression. Paying close attention to the beliefs and interactions of senior politicians and diplomats, the book seeks to replace one-sided Western histories with records from both sides. The book also offers an inside look at Soviet foreign policy making, with a focus on Stalin as a foreign policy maker as well as his interactions with his colleagues. Told in a fascinating narrative style, Stalin's Gamble attempts to see the European crisis of the 1930s through Soviet eyes.

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9781487544416

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Reviews

"""Meticulously researched and, solidly grounded in an unprecedented amount of documentary evidence from Russian, British, French, and American archives, Michael Jabara Carley's new book presents a fresh and compelling account of the persistent Soviet efforts to build a barrier against German and Japanese aggression in the 1930s. It challenges conventional wisdom about the impossibility of organizing a Soviet-Western collective security system to prevent the Second World War II."" - Vladimir O. Pechatnov, Professor of Modern History, Moscow State Institute of International Relations ""There survive a great many myths about the role of the Soviet Union in the background to the Second World War II. Michael Jabara Carley succeeds admirably in showing the real face of Soviet foreign policy in a critical era, setting the myths aside and focusing in remarkable detail on the difficulty Stalin faced in trying to work with the West to contain Hitler and other threats to peace. The result helps to reatore restore the balance in understanding Stalin's foreign policy against the current wave of demonization."" - Richard Overy, Honorary Research Professor, University of Exeter ""This first volume of Michael Jabara Carley's trilogy on Soviet-Western relations in the 1930s is the culmination of a lifetime's work on Russian, French, British, and American archives. His peerless research and fine writing brings to life the people and events of that tumultuous decade. He shows how Stalin sought but failed to secure a grand alliance against Hitler that could have averted the Second World War II. While Carley's canvas is large, his brushstrokes are as precise as they are colourful. This is diplomatic history of the highest order."" - Geoffrey Roberts, Emeritus Professor of History, University College Cork"

Author Information

Michael Jabara Carley is a professor of history at the Université de Montréal.

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