Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War, is a 2019 book by Tim Bouverie about the British policy of appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s.

Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War
First edition cover
AuthorTim Bouverie
Audio read byJohn Sessions[1]
LanguageEnglish
SubjectBritish appeasement of Adolf Hitler
PublisherThe Bodley Head
Publication date
18 April 2019
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback)
Pages512
ISBN978-1-84792-440-7 (hardcover)
327.41043
LC ClassDA47.2 .B685 2019

Bouverie explains the policy as a product of the British response to the First World War. Given that an enormous percentage of Britain's fighting-age men had died in a war the purpose of which no one could perceive, Bouverie describes British pacifism as the explanation of Chamberlain's appeasement policy, since "The desire to avoid a Second World War was perhaps the most understandable and universal wish in history."[2] Bouverie describes the antisemitism of the British ruling class as the secondary cause of Britain's reluctance to stand up to Hitler.[2]

The book is a strong response to a number of recent works of historical revisionism that have painted Chamberlain as a "super-pragmatist", much maligned since his options were limited by widespread popular pacifism and also painting him as a man who cleverly used appeasement to gain time that would enable Britain to rearm.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Appeasing Hitler. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b Szalai, Jennifer (4 June 2019). "In 'Appeasement,' How Peace With the Nazis Was Always an Illusion (book review)". New York Times. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  3. ^ David Aaronovitch (12 April 2019). "Appeasing Hitler by Tim Bouverie review — Britain's guilty men; The case is well made that appeasing Hitler was not hard-nosed pragmatism but self-delusion (book review)". The Times. Retrieved 5 June 2019.