Contents: Introduction; Part I: Nineteenth Century: A world restored: 1812-22; The Crimean War: a triumph of muddle; European mediation and the Agreement of Villefranche, 1859; The struggle for supremacy in Germany, 1859-66; International relations, 1870-98; The Western Question; Part II Early Twentieth Century: Uneasy splendour: the British Empire at the start of the twentieth century; Joseph Chamberlain; Entente Cordiale: Great Britain and France, 1898-1904; Farce before tragedy: Agadir, 1911; Admiral Fisher: a great man?; The last Tsars; Lament for Imperial Vienna; War by time-table; War weariness and peace overtures; Lenin: October and after; Part III Interwar Years: The secrets of diplomacy; The Supreme Council, 1919; The hole in the tub; The groundwork of history; German policy, 1937-38; Appeasement: German version; More light on Munich; 1938: a German version; Dragons¿ teeth; Documents; The morning after; Franco¿s friends; The moment of decision; The Phoney War; Raw meat; After Versailles; Collapse of Versailles: the moment of crisis; How Hitler went to war: the German record; Feebler and feebler; Out of the diplomatic bag; Foreign relations; Lloyd George in action; Some awkward questions; Conflict at Versailles - and after; Germany¿s breakthrough; Part IV From the Prelude of the Second World War to Cold War: American foreign policy; Roosevelt and the War; The revision of treaties: 1830 and 1938; Munich examined: Mr Wheeler-Bennett¿s history; Munich again; How the war began: an essay in diplomatic history; Diplomatic supplement; Old tunes; After appeasement; Munich twenty years after: appeasement - with the wrong man; Soviet policy and Czechoslovakia; The myths of Munich; Europe, 1939: the negotiations with Russia; The false alliance; The outbreak of war; 1939 revisited; Old Foreign Office tie; How Germany lost the war; Potsdam: the seeds of Cold War; Trieste; Czechoslovakia today (July 1946); German riddles; Heartland; No sanctity of contra.