The Triumph of the Dark

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The Triumph of the Dark: European International History 1933–1939 is a history book by Zara Steiner. Published in 2011 as part of The Oxford History of Modern Europe series, it is the second of two volumes that cover Europe’s political and diplomatic history between World War I and World War II. The first volume, The Lights that Failed, looked at 1919–1933.

What the book is about
- The central focus is how Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime changed Europe from 1933 to 1939, including Germany’s rise, its plan for Lebensraum (living space), and Nazi racial policies.
- Steiner examines Britain and France’s responses to Nazi expansion, highlighting two parallel tracks: attempts to appease Germany and efforts to build an anti-Nazi alliance.
- The book places these events in a wider context, looking at Italian and Japanese aggression, American and Soviet influence, the Spanish Civil War, anti-colonial struggles, and the economic pressures of the Great Depression.
- A key theme is the failure of democracies to check rising authoritarianism, which helped push Europe toward war. Steiner also argues against some revisionist readings of interwar history.

How the book is structured
- The work is divided into two roughly equal parts:
- 1933–1938: Europe drifts toward nationalism and away from international cooperation.
- 1938–1939: Germany’s overt aggression begins, and Britain and France struggle to create a new international order while pursuing appeasement.
- It ends with a chronological review of events from 1933 to 1941 and a substantial bibliography.

What the book covers beyond Hitler
- Nazi racial theories and policies, German expansion plans, and how these affected neighboring states.
- The roles and reactions of other powers, including the United States and the Soviet Union.
- The Spanish Civil War, Stalin’s leadership in the Soviet Union, and upheaval in Britain and France.
- Broader questions about how international capitalism and democracy responded to economic and political crisis.

Reception
- Reviewers praised the book as a major reference work and a compelling read for both specialists and general readers.
- It was noted for its thorough analysis and its value as a standard reference on interwar diplomacy, though some critics pointed to occasional unevenness and repetition with the previous volume.

Release information
- Hardcover: 2011, Oxford University Press, about 956 pages.
- Paperback: 2013, about 1222 pages.
- The Triumph of the Dark is the second volume in the Oxford History of Modern Europe series, edited by Alan Bullock and William Deakin.

About the author
- Zara Steiner (1928–2020) was an American-born British historian specializing in foreign relations and international history.
- Her two-volume work on interwar European diplomacy is widely regarded as a definitive account of the period. Steiner was a Fellow of the British Academy and had a prominent academic career in the UK.

See also (related topics)
- The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933 (the first volume in the series)
- The Origins of the Second World War
- The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848–1918
- The Third Reich Trilogy and other major works on European interwar diplomacy

The Triumph of the Dark offers a clear, accessible account of how Europe moved from the promise of the post–World War I order to the onset of World War II, focusing on Hitler’s rise, the Nazi state, and the difficult choices made by Britain and France on the road to war.