Troublesome Young Men: The Churchill Conspiracy of 1940

A riveting history of the daring politicians who challenged the disastrous policies of the British government on the eve of World War II On May 7, 1940, the House of Commons began perhaps the most crucial debate in British parliamentary history. On its outcome hung the future of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlains government and also of Britainindeed, perhaps, the world. Troublesome Young Men is Lynne Olsons fascinating account of how a small group of rebellious Tory MPs defied the Chamberlain governments defeatist policies that aimed to appease Europes tyrants and eventually forced the prime ministers resignation. Some historians dismiss the phony war that preceded this turning pointfrom September 1939, when Britain and France declared war on Germany, to May 1940, when Winston Churchill became prime ministeras a time of waiting and inaction, but Olson makes no such mistake, and describes in dramatic detail the public unrest that spread through Britain then, as people realized how poorly prepared the nation was to confront Hitler, how their basic civil liberties were being jeopardized, and also that there were intrepid politicians willing to risk political suicide to spearhead the opposition to ChamberlainHarold Macmillan, Robert Boothby, Leo Amery, Ronald Cartland, and Lord Robert Cranborne among them. The political and personal dramas that played out in Parliament and in the nation as Britain faced the threat of fascism virtually on its own are extraordinaryand, in Olsons hands, downright inspiring. Show less

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