somehow both incredibly dense and completely scattered. mazower's argument, that the failures of economic liberalism and newly-fledged democracies in the interwar period were the direct cause of wwii and the rise of fascism is interesting but not fully explored. instead, mazower takes us through a meandering study of international relations and economic history of western europe. he relies extremely heavily on quotes, which are often unattributed, to make his points, with little analysis. the most problematic elements of his argument root from his avoidance of anything that conflicts or complicates his argument. there is very little mention of nationalist spain or fascist italy, and how the totalitarian paradigm was exhibited in both, or of how modernity and wwi played a role in inciting further conflict. instead the book is almost too focused on nazi germany and stalinist russia, to the detriment of further analysis once mazower reaches the postwar period. i would be interested in an edited, newer edition since this was from 1998. since mazower can't seem to decide whether the EU fits his unified theory of european communities or not, and hedges around any outright assertions, this book left me cold. it feels more like an outline of a good argument rather than a good argument itself.

highlights: mazower's clear strengths lie in analysis of balkan history and i was pleasantly surprised by the amount of attention given to the baltic states and southern europe compared to most other analyses of this period. i also liked the idea of three competing ideologies: democracy, fascism, and communism.