1939: A People’s History By Frederick Taylor W. W. Norton & Company; 448 pp; $30 Library shelves are full of books whose titles celebrate, commemorate or contemplate a single momentous year: 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England; 1774: The Long Year of Revolution; 1776; 1917; 1941: The Year Germany Lost the War. One year, 1984, inspired author George Orwell in 1946 to forecast a dystopian, totalitarian future, which, some might argue, was prescient if premature. The year 1939, put under the microscope in this volume by British historian Frederick Taylor, is usually regarded as the start of World War II. The 12-month period Taylor memorializes really begins in September 1938, with the infamous Munich pact, when England and France signed over the German-speaking Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia—without the consent of the Czechs. It ends a year...

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