Challenges long-held assumptions regarding the German declaration of war on the United States in December 1941.

Klaus H. Schmider has been with the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst since May 1999. He is the co-author of Volume 8 of the official German history of World War II, Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg (2007).

List of Figures; List of Maps; Preface; Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations and German Terms; Introduction; 1. Hitler's Pre-war Assessment of the United States and Japan; 2. Hitler's Physical Health in Autumn 1941; 3. 'All measures short of war': the German Assessment of American Strategy, 1940/41; 4. Forging an Unlikely Alliance: Germany and Japan, 1933-1941; 5. Facing the Same Dilemma: The US and German Quest for Rubber; 6. The Crisis of the German War Economy, 1940/41; 7. The End of Blitzkrieg? Barbarossa and the Impact of Lend-Lease; 8. The Battle of the Atlantic; 9. The Luftwaffe on the Eve of Global War; 10. The Holocaust; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.