These two books, though different, are complementary. McDougall is a young American scholar, experimental and pragmatic in his approach to diplomatic history; he reconstructs French policies, born of perceived weakness, with clarity and sympathy. His is an important monograph, based on new sources. Baumont, a veteran French diplomatic historian, presents a conventional synthesis of European politics in the 1930s. Both books contribute to our understanding of the German problem and the European responses to it.