2019

Bouverie’s Chamberlain: “A Mind Sequestered in its Own Delusions”
31
Oct
2019
By MICHAEL McMENAMIN
Bouverie’s dismissal of the 1938 plot as “probably correctly” a fantasy is quite inexplicable. He lists Meehan’s book in his bibliography along with the memoirs of Erich Kordt, who wrote that swallowing Hitler’s terms at Munich “prevented the coup d’état in Berlin.” Even Henderson, the pro-Chamberlain British ambassador to Germany, thought the Hitler plot genuine. On 6 October, a week after Munich, Henderson wrote Halifax: “By keeping the peace, we have saved Hitler and his regime.”
Tags:
. Hans Oster,
Edward Halifax,
Erich Kordt,
Ernst von Weizacker,
Erwin von Witzleben,
Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin,
Franz Halder,
Hans Gisevius,
Hjalmar Schacht,
Ludwig Beck,
Michael McMenamin,
Nevile Henderson,
Neville Chamberlain,
Robert Vansittart,
Steven Roberts,
Theo Kordt,
Tim Bouverie,
Walter von Brauchitsch,
Walter von Brockdorf,
Wilhelm Canaris,
Winston S. Churchill,
The Churchill Documents vol. 22, “Leader of the Opposition,” 1945-1951
25
Oct
2019
By ANDREW ROBERTS
Volume 22 of the Churchill Documents contains Churchill's documentary record from the 1945 election and his return to the premiership in October 1951. It is a curiously under-examined part of Churchill’s career. Yet it encompassed the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan and her subsequent surrender, his Iron Curtain speech in Missouri, the partition of India and the creation of Israel, the Berlin airlift, and the founding of NATO and the European movement. Upon all of these, Churchill took important stances.
McKercher and Capet on Churchill, War and War’s Aftermath
02
Oct
2019
By BRADLEY TOLPPANEN
McKercher and Capet have provided a collection of substantive and challenging essays. Their book offers many useful observations that will stimulate further historical discussion and scholarship.
A Needed Tribute to Churchill’s Most Devoted Staff, by Cita Stelzer
03
Sep
2019
By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
"Working with Winston: The Unsung Women," by Cita Stelzer, shows the importance Churchill attached to everything, from routine domestic matters to the terror of imminent extinction. This book is essential to understand the rounded picture.
The End is Nigh: British Politics, Power, and the Road to the Second World War, by Robert Crowcroft
28
Aug
2019
By PAUL ADDISON
Both Churchill and Chamberlain understood that Nazi Germany was a time bomb. But whereas Chamberlain imagined that it could be defused by diplomacy, Churchill believed that it could only be defused by force, or the threat of force. When the diplomacy of appeasement failed Chamberlain was compelled to accept—albeit with the profound reluctance of a man who loathed war—that no other response was possible. In the final analysis the British Empire, which was already in decline, had to be sacrificed so that Britain itself could live.
Hamilton’s Churchill: An Obsessive Who Worsened a President’s Illness
30
Jul
2019
By WARREN F. KIMBALL
Why would Hamilton raise the inconsequential to the significant? With admirers like this, Churchill’s memory needs no enemies.
“Churchill and the Generals” – by Mike Lepine
11
Jan
2016