Here are two suggestions: Neville Chamberlain by David Dutton (London: Arnold "Reputations" series, 2001, 245 pp.) is quite common and is perhaps the best of the short biographies, though the author disclaims even that purpose. Indeed, the book takes a broadly topical approach rather than the biographical chronology of many other books here. He describes views of the man in his own time, the wartime and post-war attack on appeasement, "the Churchill factor," the growth of revisionism, and the importance of evidence-much of it only fairly recently released. The author is a reader of history (member of the faculty) at the University of Liverpool. His study ends with a valuable bibliographic essay on the literature about Chamberlain and his context.
Burying Caesar: The Churchill-Chamberlain Rivalry by Graham Stewart (Woodstock, NY: Overlook, 2001, 533 pp.) is absolutely one of my favorite books. Based on the author's doctoral dissertation at Cambridge (what a way to begin a career!), this is perhaps the book for Churchillians for it fully explores the varied relations between the two men. As the author puts it, this is a study in ambition and power. It appears as two "books" in organization-the first focusing more on the domestic political front, and the second on how foreign affairs pulled the country into war. In a sense the first provides the political context for the second. Based largely on primary documents, this is a fascinating book that wends its way between the two polar positions of pro- and anti-appeasement. Chris Sterling Washington Society for Churchill From: Bill Loytty Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 11:21 AM To: ChurchillChat@googlegroups.com Subject: [ChurchillChat] Good one volume work on Chamberlain? I'm currently reading Andrew Roberts interesting bio of Lord Halifax, The Holy Fox (link goes to amazon) . It's gotten me interested in reading more about the other leading appeasers. Does anyone know of a good, accessible, one volume work on Chamberlain or Wilson or others of their ilk? (hopefully one that wont bore me to tears). While I think that the appeasers deserve most of the opprobrium they've gotten in the last 70 years, I'd like to read more on their successes and failures before the 30s, to try and understand why they were so blind (like much of their contemporaries) to the danger Hitler posed. Regards, Bill --- Bill Loytty b...@loytty.com http://blog.loytty.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to churchillc...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to churchillchat+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to churchillc...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to churchillchat+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
