Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler: How a British Civil Servant Helped Cause the Second World War

Description

No one doubts that appeasement failed, but Phillips shows that it caused active harm - even sabotaging Britain's preparations for war. He goes far further than previous historians in identifying the individuals responsible for a catalogue of miscalculations, deviousness and moral surrender that made the Second World War inevitable, and highlights the alternative policies that might have prevented it. Featuring new revelations about the personalities involved and the shameful manipulations and betrayals that went into appeasement, including an attempt to buy Hitler off with a ruthless colonialist deal in Africa, Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler shines a compelling and original light on one of the darkest hours in British diplomatic history.

Adrian Phillips worked as an investment analyst in London and Frankfurt for twenty-five years, with a particular interest in the political background to financial markets. He then took a postgraduate master's in modern history at Birmingham University, specialising in the policy machinery at 10 Downing Street during the 1930s. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The King Who Had to Go: Edward VIII, Mrs Simpson and the Hidden Politics of the Abdication Crisis.

"This fascinating study is a model of historical sleuthing. Vigorously researched, it should appeal widely to history buffs." - Library Journal "Phillips deepens the common understanding of such well-known events as Chamberlain's September 1938 Munich visit by focusing on the role played by Sir Horace Wilson, a senior civil servant with no foreign policy background who served as the prime minister's aide and confidante."- Publisher's Weekly