European Neutrals and Non-Belligerents during the Second World War

Edited by Neville Wylie
Cambridge University Press, 12/20/2001
EAN 9780521643580, ISBN10: 0521643589

Hardcover, 382 pages, 23.7 x 16 x 3.4 cm
Language: English

This collection provides a comprehensive English-language survey of the conduct of neutral and non-belligerent states during the war. Instead of narrowly focusing on the few neutrals that survived the war intact, the volume broadens our understanding of neutrality, by including chapters on 'non-belligerents' and those neutrals of south-east Europe, such as Romania and Yugoslavia. The essays focus on how individual neutral governments perceived international developments and throw light on the domestic political circumstances that critically affected their response to the course of the war. They therefore provide the political context that has been overlooked in controversies surrounding their humanitarian and financial activities. While based on the authors' own research, the essays draw widely on secondary literature and provide invaluable analytical introductions to the large amount of historical writing on these countries.

List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
victims or actors? European neutrals and non-belligerents, 1939–45 Neville Wylie
Part I. The 'Phoney War' Neutrals
1. Denmark, September 1939–April 1940 Hans Kirchhoff
2. Norway Patrick Salmon
3. The Netherlands Bob Moore
4. Belgium
fragile neutrality, solid neutralism Alain Colignon
Part II. The 'Wait and See' Neutrals
Map of South-East Europe and the Balkans, 1939–41
5. 'Where one man, and only one man, led'
Italy's path from non-alignment to non-belligerency to war, 1937–40 Brian R. Sullivan
6. Treaty revision and doublespeak
Hungarian neutrality, 1939–41 Tibor Frank
7. Romanian neutrality 1939–40 Maurice Pearton
8. Bulgarian neutrality
domestic and international perspectives Vesselin Dimitrov
9. Yugoslavia Dragoljub R. Živojinovič
Part III. The 'Long Haul' Neutrals
10. Spain and the Second World War, 1939–45 Elena Hernández-Sandoica and Enrique Moradiello
11. Portuguese neutrality in the Second World War Fernando Rosas
12. Irish neutrality in the Second World War Eunan O'Halpin
13. Swedish neutrality during the Second World War
tactical success or moral compromise? Paul A. Levine
14. Switzerland
a neutral of distinction? Neville Wylie
Appendix
Index.

‘The attention properly given to historiography increases the book’s value as a complement to mainline Second World War histories … Not only do these essays modify our understanding of neutrality, they also prompt us to rethink the Second World War itself.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘… there is much to commend in this book … It is a very accessible book which will give the undergraduate an understanding of how the war was seen in the varying categories of ‘neutral’ nations, and will help fill in some gaps for researchers working on the Second world war period.’ History

‘… a very wide-ranging, but also a highly constructive treatment … The editor is to be commended on bringing these essays together; without doubt the collection will be valuable to academics and students alike.’ Diplomacy and Statecraft

‘… the book is attractively presented. There are handy short identifications of the contributors and the notes are at the bottom of the pages …’. H-Diplo