Title: Knows not to read history backward
Product review: OK, it's pricey, but Nick Smart's book on the Phoney War is an admirable addition to the literature on the period and should be on the shelves of those seriously interested in World War II. He looks at the information available at the time and assesses the actions of the participants based on what they knew then and how they planned to reach the goals they envisioned. If you're looking for another of the endless exercises in monday morning quarterbacking, you won't find it here. What you will get is a balanced, insightful summary of a period when several possible outcomes were in evidence. If Hitler had gotten his way and attacked in the autumn, and if the General Staff had gotten its way and recapitualted the Schlieffen Plan, it all could have gone quite differently.
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