An in-depth look at the misguided foreign policy of appeasement towards Hitler and the Third Reich during World War II--from a world renowned historian.   World War II and its attendant horrors arguably began in the British policy of appeasement of the Nazi rise to power between the First and Second World Wars.   In this compelling work, Martin Gilbert walks the reader through several decades of behavior that, in retrospect, is hard to accept. Gilbert's incisive focus on primary sources uncovers the real reasons for the appeasement policy, from the search for a just peace to attempts to avoid another war at all costs--illuminating the historical underpinnings of a fatally flawed policy and its tragic consequences for the Jewish people.   This book also contains a chronology of appeasement policy as well as five specially drawn maps and five appendices--including a transcript of British statesman and politician David Lloyd George's conversation with Hitler at Berchtesgaden in 1936.