Aufrüstung oder Sicherheit: Die Reichswehr in der Krise der Machtpolitik 1924-1936

In this book, Michael Geyer integrates military planning and development with international and domestic politics and economics. His analysis centers on two themes: first, that in the twentieth century the conduct of war became an industrial activity, an inseparable part of a whole society's involvement in national security, and, second, that international relations had developed by the twenties on many other levels than the purely diplomatic and military, while the potential for power had shifted decisively from Central and Western Europe to the United States and the Soviet Union. This is an important, even path­breaking study, for it brings out the profound connection between national security and global politicoeconomic conditions. Geyer has given military history new scope. [Edward W. Bennett]