Rainer Schmidt Mobilmachung für den Krieg: Die Außenpolitik des Dritten Reiches von 1933 bis 1939 (Mobilising for War: The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich 1933 - 1939) Klett-Cotta, September 2002. 440 pp. ISBN 3-608-94047-2 The aim of this study of Nazi foreign policy is to answer a number of interrelated questions suggested by Goebbel's assertion of 5 April 1940 that Nazi policies were obvious to anyone who had read Mein Kampf. It seeks to establish whether these policies were indeed informed by such long-term ideological goals or determined by opportunistic and tactical responses to immediate pressures. Schmidt notes that Mein Kampf was a largely unread bestseller and that (partly for that reason?) Germany's oscillation between peace propaganda and preparation for war was highly effective in a Europe traumatised by the Great War, fearful of high defence expenditure, and racked by inner social tensions. Hitler's own political style, his arbitrary shifts of policy, his risk-taking, his dislike of collective decision-making, his impatience with the professionals in the Foreign Office and the Army, his avoidance of written records and propensity for long-winded oral presentations of his views all contributed to his success, as did his Darwinistic notions of the survival of the fittest, in nations as well as nature. Schmidt points out that each of the leading Nazi personalities had different foreign policy preferences, and explores the implications for foreign policy of the views of Göring, Goebbels, Himmler and Hitler himself. An epilogue offers a reiteration of the book's fundamentally 'intentionalist' thesis, which is that Hitler sought the war and worked for it, aided by the Western powers' disunity, intransigence and self-centredness. The failure of the German elites, in the diplomatic and military spheres, is another recurrent theme. Schmidt's study is, first of all, highly readable, jargon-free and extremely lucid. There are also some splendidly amusing asides, such as those concerning Ribbentrop's ill-fated period as ambassador to the court of St James, where his propensity for committing social solecisms earned him the nickname 'Herr von Brickendrop'. English readers will find the space devoted to Anglo-German relations particularly apposite, but most of all this book is to be valued for its overall approach. The German edition has just been published, so now is the time to bid.