Product Description

Anthony Eden was born in the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897) and died in the year of Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee (1997). He had good looks, charm, a Military Cross from the First World War, a First from Oxford, a safe parliamentary seat - and ambition. A man of rigid honour, he resigned as Foreign Secretary in 1938 because he could not agree with the policy of appeasement to Hitler. After the commencement of hostilities, he was brought back into politics and served a long apprenticeship as Churchill's right-hand man. Eventually he achieved his heart's desire and became Prime Minister, only to be brought down by the Suez Crisis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #824714 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

Review
Tremendously well-researched and hard-hitting...quite the best compressed account I've ever read of it [of the Suez crisis]...superbly researched and well-written analysis', ANDREW ROBERTS, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH .'The best-life of this ill-starred politician that we are likely to get...the skilful way he has paced his narrative...vivid...some of the disclosures are pure, unalloyed joy...Thorpe has painted a sympathetic enough portrait but he has not tried to blot out all the warts...excellent', ANTHONY HOWARD, SUNDAY TIMES .'Sympathetic and authoraitative...This biography, while solidly based on a myriad primary sources and a comprehensive range of secondary ones, flows easily with many nice touches...easily the best friendly account', INA GILMOUR, FINANCIAL TIMES .'a biography of almost unqualified excellence...comprehensive, authoritative, balanced and invariably (throughout more than 600 pages) readable...In a year or more of notable biographies, there has been nothing to touch it...as told by D.R. Thorpe it is a history of exceptionally high quality', Roy Hattersley, New Statesman .'excellent, well-researched, clear and readable', PETER LEWIS, DAILY MAIL .'This magnificent biography...this scholarly book...Thorpe's distinction lies in having redeemed his subject without making any prosleytising efforts to do so. The facts - many of them available for the first time - are allowed to speak for themselves. This is a very necessary book.', LITERARY REVIEW

PETER LEWIS, DAILY MAIL
"excellent, well-researched, clear and readable"

ROY HATTERSLEY, NEW STATESMAN
"a biography of almost unqualified excellence ...comprehensive, authoritative, balanced and invariably (throughout more than 600 pages) readable ..."

Customer Reviews

Anthony Eden means more than just the Suez crisis.
This book is certainly sympathetic to Eden, who will always be associated with the Suez crisis of 1956. Thorpe describes Eden's work with Butler, Churchill, Attlee and Macmillan and his attitude to men such as Benito Mussolini and Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Although the focus of the book is foreign policy, Thorpe also stresses Eden's understanding of the British economy and his belief in a property owning democracy. Very few of the 600 pages are dull and I can recommend this book highly.

A sympathetic assessment of a controversial Prime Minister
Few reputations in British political history have suffered more than that of Anthony Eden. A rising young star of inter-war British politics, his career was hindered, if not crippled, by his extended tenure as heir-apparent to Winston Churchill for the leadership of the Conservative Party and the nation. Defined for a generation by his resignation in response to Chamberlain's determined policies of appeasement, his premiership will forever be remembered for the disastrous misjudgment of the Suez invasion. So tarnished has his reputation been that his family has commissioned two official biographies since his death. D. R. Thorpe's is the second, following on Robert Rhodes James' biography from nearly two decades before.

Thorpe's book is a noticeably sympathetic account of Eden's life, one which helps the reader understand the nature of his appeal. Born to a family that Thorpe characterizes as "minor aristocracy," he enjoyed a privileged childhood that was punctuated by service in the First World War. Interested in politics at an early age, he won a seat in Parliament in 1924 where he soon gained a reputation for ability in foreign policy. A little more than a decade after winning his first election, Eden was appointed Foreign Secretary. Over the next three years he faced the rise of an increasingly aggressive Germany, during which time he embraced policies that placed him increasingly out of step with his more conciliatory colleagues but did his reputation much good later on.

After his resignation in 1938 Eden quickly became a focus of Conservative dissent in the House of Commons. He was even seen by many as an alternative to the existing prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, though his slow return to office after the start of the Second World War meant that he was not a candidate when Chamberlain resigned in 1940. Eventually returning to his old job as Foreign Secretary, Eden soon emerged as Winston Churchill's successor as leader of the Conservative Party, a position he would occupy with increasing discomfort for the next fifteen years. Though eventually succeeding Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955, he faced a host of problems, most notably Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal the following year. Determined to regain the canal, the resulting operation proved a humiliating reversal, crippling Britain's international standing and costing Eden his premiership.

An accomplished political biographer, Thorpe offers a solid account of Eden's life, one rooted in a considerable amount of research, including numerous original interviews with people who knew Eden. Yet the book is burdened by an annoying degree of repetition of little details that seems prematurely introduced and then brought up again just a few pages later. Thorpe also seems never to have encountered a quote or an anecdote he didn't like, regardless of its relevancy to the topic being examined. Such matters distract from the overall focus of his point and diminish the broader effectiveness of Thorpe's writing.

Despite these flaws, Thorpe has provided what is the best biography of a controversial and disappointing prime minister. Though not as well written as James's earlier study, it benefits from Thorpe's extensive archival research, much of it in collections which was unavailable earlier. As such it stands as a well-supported defense of Eden's career, one infused with much respect for the man and consideration for his achievements.

Very Interesting
Anthony Eden by D.R.Thorpe is well-written and very interesting work. It is full of interesting facts and stories but never loses sight of its main aim. Although the author is in many ways sympathetic to Eden he does not gloss over the fact that in 1956 Eden made some quite frankly horrendous decisions over Suez. The author also however shows that there was much more to Anthony Eden than just Suez and that in fact a reappraisal is due of his whole career. All in all a very good book about a much maligned Prime Minister who it must be remembered had an almost impossible task taking over from one of the outstanding figures in British history.