pt. 1. From Sarajevo to Hiroshima: The technical surprise -- Dynamism of total war -- The Leninist myth of imperialism -- War and the total state -- Necessity and accident -- pt. 2. Crossroads of history: The rise of the peripheral states -- From Marxism to Stalinism -- Expansion of Stalinism -- The atomic age -- Logic and chance -- pt. 3. Limited war: The conventions of the Cold War -- Reversal of alliances -- Intercontinental equilibrium -- Stalinism and the shade of the past -- The Cold War: preparation or substitute for total war? -- pt. 4. A helpless Europe?: Dialectic of the extremes -- The national socialisms -- Can Europe live? -- Can Europe unite? -- Has Europe a historic vitality? -- [pt. 5.] Conclusion: the stake: After Stalin -- The end of the socialist myth -- Faith without illusions.
