Download or read book Neville Chamberlain written by Robert C. Self and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neville Chamberlain was a truly pivotal figure in British and International politics, with a long and distinguished career in government. Yet despite this record, he generally is only remembered for his trip to Munich in 1938 and the appeasement of Hitler. In this biography the whole of Chamberlain's political career is examined and put into its national and international context to provide a much fuller and fairer account of his life and career than has hitherto been available.

Download or read book The Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters written by Robert Self and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a primary source of historical evidence and insight, it is difficult to overstate the value and importance of Neville Chamberlain's diary letters to his sisters. They represent the most complete and illuminating 'insider' record of British politics between the wars yet to be published. From 1915 Chamberlain wrote detailed weekly epistles to his sisters until his death in 1940; a confidential account of events covering the quarter of a century during which he stood at the very centre of Conservative and national politics. Beyond the fascination of the historical record of people and events, these letters are extremely valuable for the remarkable light they throw upon the personality and character of the private man lurking behind the austerely forbidding public persona.

Download or read book Attlee s War written by Robert Crowcroft and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-07-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As deputy prime minister of Britain's coalition government during World War II, Clement Attlee became one of the most powerful figures in British politics and subsequently played a crucial role in the reshaping of the post-war party-political landscape. The architect of Labour's entry into the wartime coalition, Attlee came to straddle the workings of government to a unique degree. Unmatched in his range of influence, he dominated party politics; directed a doctrinal struggle within the coalition; and even sought to create the conditions for a cross-party alliance to be maintained after the war. His goal was to carve out a position of greater strength than Labour had ever occupied before and he succeeded when he led his party to power in July 1945. Robert Crowcroft here examines the political leadership of the unsung architect behind the development of wartime politics and the rise of the Labour party. Traditionally seen as a period of unprecedented cooperation between the Labour and Conservative parties, Crowcroft argues that in fact Attlee's influence facilitated a significant shift towards Labour which sowed the seeds for his party's post-war victory. Attlee's War mounts a challenge to the popular image of Attlee as a reticent collegiate, and unravels his elusive path to power. Shedding new light on an often misunderstood figure, this book will appeal to all those interested in modern British history and the leadership of major political figures.

Download or read book The Fall of Lloyd George written by M.S.R. Kinnear and published by Springer. This book was released on 1973-06-18 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Strategy and Command written by Roy A. Prete and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2021-06-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Falling between the “War of Movement” in 1914 and the major attrition battles of 1916, 1915 was a critical year in the First World War. As France failed in ever-larger offensives to break through the German trenches, Britain shifted its strategy from defence of empire to total commitment to the continental war. In the second of three planned volumes, Roy Prete analyzes the political and military policies and strategies of Britain and France and their joint command relationship on the Western Front in 1915. The opposing strategies of the two governments proved to be the main determinant in the sometimes ragged relations between the French commander-in-chief, Joseph Joffre, and his British counterpart, Sir John French, as they sought to drive the German army out of France and to aid their hard-pressed Russian ally. With an impressive marshalling of evidence, Strategy and Command demonstrates that the increased British commitment to the continental war, manifested in sending Kitchener’s New Armies to France in 1915, was largely due to the disastrous situation of the Russian army on the Eastern Front and the perceived weakness of the French government. Based on extensive research in French and British political and military archives, this new in-depth study of Anglo-French military relations on the Western Front in 1915 fills a major gap in the unfolding drama of the First World War.

Download or read book Winston S Churchill World in Torment 1916 1922 written by Martin Gilbert and published by Rosetta Books. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 1327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth volume in the official biography—“The most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written” (Herbert Mitgang, The New York Times). Covering the years 1916 to 1922, Martin Gilbert’s fascinating account carefully traces Churchill’s wide-ranging activities and shows how, by his persuasive oratory, administrative skill, and masterful contributions to Cabinet discussions, Churchill regained, only a few years after the disaster of the Dardanelles, a leading position in British political life. Included are many dramatic and controversial episodes: the German breakthrough on the Western Front in March 1918, the anti-Bolshevik intervention in 1919, negotiating the Irish Treaty, consolidating the Jewish National Home in Palestine, and the Chanak crisis with Turkey. In all these, and many other events, Churchill’s leading role is explained and illuminated in Martin Gilbert’s precise, masterful style. In a moving final chapter, covering a period when Churchill was without a seat in Parliament for the first time since 1900, Martin Gilbert brilliantly draws together the many strands of a time in Churchill’s life when his political triumphs were overshadowed by personal sorrows, by his increasingly somber reflections on the backward march of nations and society, and by his stark forecasts of dangers to come. “A milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement . . . Rightly regarded as the most comprehensive life ever written of any age.” —Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War

Download or read book Fighting Churchill Appeasing Hitler written by Adrian Phillips and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Appeasement failed in all its goals. The kindest thing that can be said of it is that postponed World War II by one year. Its real effect was to convince Hitler and Mussolini that Britain was weak and afraid of confrontation, encouraging them to ever-greater acts of aggression.Chamberlain and Wilson blindly pursued bilateral friendship between Britain and the dictators and ferociously resisted alternative policies such as working with France, the Soviet Union, or the U.S. to face down the dictators. They resisted all-out rearmament which would have put the economy on a war footing. These were all the policies advocated by Winston Churchill, the most dangerous opponent of appeasement.Neither Chamberlain nor Wilson had any experience of day-to-day practical diplomacy. Both thought that the dictators would apply the same standards of rationality and clarity to the policies of Italy and Germany that applied in Britain. They could not grasp that Fascist demagogues operated in an entirely different way to democratic politicians. The catastrophe of the Chamberlain/Wilson appeasement policy offers a vital lesson in how blind conviction in one policy as the only alternative can be fatally damaging.

Download or read book Genoa Rapallo and European Reconstruction in 1922 written by Carole Fink and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-08-08 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique international collaboration, presenting various perspectives on the Genoa Conference of 1922.

Download or read book Winston Churchill the Wilderness Years written by Martin Gilbert and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-18 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The public owes a great debt to Martin Gilbert for producing this book... This more concise account of Churchill's long period out of office - 1929-39 - lacks nothing.' - Contemporary Review In 1928, Winston Churchill was at the height of his career. Chancellor of the Exchequer and a powerful and popular orator, leadership of the Conservative Party seemed within his grasp. A year later, all had changed. The Conservatives were defeated and, when a National Government was formed in 1931, Churchill was not asked to join it. Though he was a lone figure from this point, his acute political sense, foresight and courage were undiminished. Fed with secret inside information, Churchill consistently warned of the Nazi danger, even before the rise of Hitler. The British government, led by Stanley Baldwin and later Neville Chamberlain, fought him at every turn, even refusing him the right to broadcast. But he never gave up. It was as a direct result of his dogged perseverance that the British public came to realise the truth of his warnings - and a bond was formed that would be so vital in the years to come.

Download or read book Britain and the Bolshevik Revolution written by Stephen White and published by Springer. This book was released on 1979-06-17 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lord Robert Cecil written by Gaynor Johnson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lawyer, politician, diplomat and leading architect of the League of Nations; Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, was one of Britain's most significant statesmen of the twentieth century. His views on international diplomacy cover the most important aspects of British, European and American foreign policy concerns of the century, including the origins and consequences of the two world wars, the disarmament movement, the origins and early course of the Cold War and the first steps towards European integration. His experience of the First World War and the huge loss of life it entailed provoked Cecil to spend his life championing the ethos behind and work of the League of Nations: a role for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937. Yet despite his prominence in the international peace movement, Cecil has never been the focus of an academic biography. Cecil has perhaps been judged unfairly due to his association with the League of Nations, which has since been generally regarded as a failure. However, recent academic research has highlighted the contribution of the League to the creation of many of the institutions and precepts that have, since the Second World War, become accepted parts of the international system, not least the United Nations. In particular, Cecil and his work on arms control lay the basis for understanding this new area of international activity, which would bear fruit during the Cold War and after. Through an evaluation of Cecil's political career, the book also assesses his reputation as an idealist and the extent to which he had a coherent philosophy of international relations. This book suggests that in reality Cecil was a Realpolitiker pragmatist whose attitudes evolved during two key periods: the interwar period and the Cold War. It also proposes that where a coherent philosophy was in evidence, it owed as much to the moral and political code of the Cecil family as to his own experiences in politics. Cecil's social and familial world is therefore considered alongside his more public life.

Download or read book Sir John Fisher s Naval Revolution written by Nicholas A. Lambert and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the intrigue and negotiations between the Admiralty and domestic politicians and social reformers before World War I. It also explains how Britain's naval leaders responded to non-military, cultural challenges under the direction of Adimiral Sir John Fisher.

Download or read book Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson written by Keith Jeffery and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2006-03-09 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, an Irishman who in June 1922 was assassinated on his doorstep in London by Irish republicans, was one of the most controversial British soldiers of the modern age. Before 1914 he did much to secure the Anglo-French alliance and was responsible for the planning which saw the British Expeditionary Force successfully despatched to France after the outbreak of war with Germany. A passionate Irish unionist, he gained a reputation as an intensely 'political' soldier, especially during the 'Curragh crisis' of 1914 when some officers resigned their commisssions rather than coerce Ulster unionists into a Home Rule Ireland. During the war he played a major role in Anglo-French liaison, and ended up as Chief of the Imperial General Staff, professional head of the army, a post he held until February 1922. After Wilson retired from the army, he became an MP and was chief security adviser to the new Northern Ireland government. As such, he became a target for nationalist Irish militants, being identified with the security policies of the Belfast regime, though wrongly with Protestant sectarian attacks on Catholics. He is remembered today in unionist Northern Ireland as a kind of founding martyr for the state. Wilson's reputation was ruined in 1927 with the publication of an official biography, which quoted extensively and injudiciously from his entertaining, indiscreet, and wildly opinionated diaries, giving the impression that he was some sort of Machiavellian monster. In this first modern biography, using a wide variety of official and private sources for the first time, Keith Jeffery reassesses Wilson's life and career and places him clearly in his social, national, and political context.

Download or read book Afghanistan and the Defence of Empire written by Christopher M. Wyatt and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-02-20 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the height of the 'Great Game' in Central Asia, in the run up to World War I and the aftermath of the second Afghan War, the region of Afghanistan became particularly significant for both Great Britain and Russia. Afghanistan and the Defence of Empire explores the relationship between British and Afghan rulers, during the crucial period of the reign of Amir Habibullah Khan, as the British sought to safeguard their Indian Empire from the threat of Imperial Russia. With Russia's defeat at the hands of the Japanese in 1905 and the rise of Germany as a superpower, the need to end the rivalry took on the utmost importance: efforts which culminated in the singing of the Anglo-Russian Convention in 1907. As the history of Afghanistan becomes ever more crucial for the understanding of its present military and political situation, this book will be of vital interest for students of History, Central Asian Studies, Military History and International Relations.

Download or read book Austen Chamberlain and the Commitment to Europe written by Dr Richard S Grayson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-27 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a study of Austen Chamberlain's term of office as Stanley Baldwin's Foreign Secretary from 1924-29. It is argued that Chamberlain's priority was a two-stage policy in Western Europe, which aimed at pacifying both France and Germany, as well as encouraging the League of Nations.

Download or read book Austen Chamberlain and the Commitment to Europe written by Richard S. Grayson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1997 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book fills a major gap in the study of inter-war British foreign policy: it is the first complete study of Austen Chamberlain's term of office as Stanley Baldwin's Foreign Secretary from 1924-29.

Download or read book The Spectre of War written by Jonathan Haslam and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-27 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new history showing that the fear of Communism was a major factor in the outbreak of World War II The Spectre of War looks at a subject we thought we knew—the roots of the Second World War—and upends our assumptions with a masterful new interpretation. Looking beyond traditional explanations based on diplomatic failures or military might, Jonathan Haslam explores the neglected thread connecting them all: the fear of Communism prevalent across continents during the interwar period. Marshalling an array of archival sources, including records from the Communist International, Haslam transforms our understanding of the deep-seated origins of World War II, its conflicts, and its legacy. Haslam offers a panoramic view of Europe and northeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s, connecting fascism’s emergence with the impact of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. World War I had economically destabilized many nations, and the threat of Communist revolt loomed large in the ensuing social unrest. As Moscow supported Communist efforts in France, Spain, China, and beyond, opponents such as the British feared for the stability of their global empire, and viewed fascism as the only force standing between them and the Communist overthrow of the existing order. The appeasement and political misreading of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy that followed held back the spectre of rebellion—only to usher in the later advent of war. Illuminating ideological differences in the decades before World War II, and the continuous role of pre- and postwar Communism, The Spectre of War provides unprecedented context for one of the most momentous calamities of the twentieth century.