Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
- ISBN-10
- 0385661509
- ISBN-13
- 9780385661508
- Category
- Great Britain
- Pages
- 448
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2007-04-17
- Publisher
- Bond Street Books
- Author
- Lynne Olson
Description
Acclaimed historian Lynne Olson’s collective biography explores one of the most important turning points in 20th-century history – the months leading up to Winston Churchill’s accession to Prime Minister and the decisive turning of the tide in Britain against the appeasement of Hitler. They attended the same schools, went to the same country houses, married each other’s sisters. They were part of the small, clubby network that dominated English society. And now they were doing the unthinkable: trying to topple the man who led their own political party, prime minister Neville Chamberlain, from power. It was early 1940, several months after Britain had declared war on Germany–and then had made clear it had little interest in fighting. Poland had been crushed, and Chamberlain, despite the treaties and the promises to Poland, had done nothing to save it. In Germany, military buildup continued unabated, as Hitler fine-tuned his plans for an assault on Western Europe. In Britain there was doubt, suspicion, and despair. When war was declared, the country had braced itself: millions had been evacuated to the countryside; a blackout had been imposed–and for what? What was the justification? A small group of dissidents within the Conservative Party drew together to fight Chamberlain and his policy of appeasing Hitler. They included the bookish Harold Macmillan, an unlikely rebel; Roland Cartland, most outspoken of the dissidents; and Anthony Eden, the Golden Boy of interwar politics and Chamberlain’s foreign secretary. The climax of months of conspiracy would come in May 1940, when the House of Commons gathered to debate Britain’s defeat by Germany in Norway. As the rebels worked feverishly to line up last-minute support, the dissidents feared that their odds of success were slim. Yet within days of their challenging Chamberlain over the conduct of the war in Norway, he was gone and Churchill was prime minister. Troublesome Young Men is the story of how that came to be–and of the men who made it happen.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2008-04-29
- 464 pages
- Paperback
- Macmillan
Similar books
-
Archbishop Drummond's Visitation Returns 1764: Yorkshire H-R
By Cressida Annesley, Philippa M. Hoskin... Kirby in Cleveland , 86 Rochester , bishop of , see Pearce , Zachary ; Wilcocks , Joseph Rockingham , marquis of , see Watson - Wentworth , Charles Rodhill ( W. Riding ) , 167 Roebuck Low ( W. Riding ) , 130 Rogers , John , 98 n .
-
Henry's Heads
By Anna ClaybourneFeatures images which encourage readers to engage with curriculum topics - and text with a low reading level (age 7) that ensures that the concepts are accessible to struggling pupils.
-
All About Henry VIII
By Anna ClaybourneTeaching history can be a real challenge - especially if pupils are really struggling with reading or are finding it difficult to get their heads around curriculum concepts.
-
The Day Gone by: An Autobiography
By Richard AdamsThe author recounts his childhood, education, and World War II experiences
-
Proceedings in Parliament, 1626: House of Commons
By William B. Bidwell, Maija JanssonCharles Aty is committed , and by my Lord Treasurer's warrant.37 Moved that one Sam Speed and the rest of the waiters may be sent for , and Richard Cutter , dwelling in Moorfields . George Langham entered into bond that if other paid he ...
-
Whig Principles and Party Politics: Earl Fitzwilliam and the Whig Party, 1748-1833
By William Lewis Sachse29 Zouch to Fitzwilliam , 19 December , J. Preston , 21 December and S. Croft , 21 December 1783 ( F 34b ) ; Wyvill Papers , II , p . 289. Fitzwilliam had tried without success to persuade Weddell and Sir John Ramsden to second Foljambe ...
-
Theater and World: The Problematics of Shakespeare's History
By Jonathan Locke HartBate , Jonathan . Shakespearean Constitutions : Politics , Theatre , Criticism , 1730– 1830. Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1989 . Battenhouse , Roy . “ Henry V as Heroic Comedy . ” In Essays on Shakespeare and Elizabethan Drama in Honor of ...
-
Radical Artisan, William James Linton, 1812-97
By Francis Barrymore SmithRadical Artisan, William James Linton, 1812-97
-
The Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, 1999-2000
By Charles HeymanA reference to the main aspects of the organisations and equipment of Britain's Army, Royal Navy and RAF, with diagrams and descriptions of the roles of each service, accompanied by...
-
The Welfare State in Britain since 1945
By Rodney LoweTable 6.2 Estimates of poverty in the UK, 1950–75 Year Study Source Unit % of total Number population (million) 1950 Rowntree” Survey Household 1.7 Atkinson* 5.8 1953–4 Abel-Smith and Townsend FES Household 1.2 0.6 1954 Gough and Stark ...