Product Description

On 30 September 1938 Neville Chamberlain flew back to London from his meeting at Munich with the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. As he paused on the aircraft steps, he held aloft the piece of paper which bore both his and the Fuhrer's signature, the promise that Britain and Germany would never go to war with one another again. He had returned bringing 'Peace with honour - Peace for our Time.' Drawing on a wealth of original archival material, David Faber sheds new light on this extraordinary story, tracing the key incidents leading up to the meeting at Munich and its immediate aftermath: Lord Halifax's ill-fated visit to Hitler; Chamberlain's secret negotiations with Mussolini, and the Berlin scandal that rocked Hitler's regime. He takes us to Vienna, to the Sudetenland, and to Prague. In Berlin, we witness Hitler inexorably preparing for war; and in London, we watch helplessly as Chamberlain makes one supreme effort after another to appease Hitler.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35928 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'A sparkling and perceptive account of events that still resonate seventy years on' -- D. R. Thorpe

Review
'A brilliant recreation of a year which I imagined (quite wrongly) I knew everything about'

Review
'An important contribution to our understanding of the diplomatic debacle which signalled the start of the Second World War'

Customer Reviews

The Fuhrer Runs Rings Around the Democracies
This is an absorbing, detailed, if somewhat lengthy account of the period leading upto and after the Munich Crisis of 1938.

Sadly, it exposes the weakness and vascilation of the then European leaders, led mainly by Britain's Neville Champerlain. These sincere but weak men spent much of their time by partly squabbling amongst themsleves or acting behind each others backs, thus allowing Adolf Hitler to absorb territories that he coveted, without his armies hardly firing a shot.

It is understandable that they wished to avoid another carnage like WW1 which was then so recent in time, but it makes one wonder what might have been if between them they has shown just a little defiance in the face of Hitler's bluster.

One of the most significant years in modern history
Firstly the book was easy to read and very informative on all aspects that took place in 1938. I have studied this area in brief before, so had some prior knowledge on the main events but never really understood the in depth political side, which in turn has enhanced my knowledge, especially form a British perspective with the difference in opinions over Chamberlains appeasement policies. The book is written in a way that does not confuse and because of its easy reading nature, I never wanted to put the book down. This book would be ideal and informative for anybody who has no prior knowledge on the appeasement year of 1938 and the many events such as the Munich Conference. Excellent.

AN EXCELLENT NARRATIVE OF THE APPEASEMENT TRAGEDY
David Faber has meticulously researched one of the most tragic years on the eve of the Second World War,namely:1938.This period is better known as the Munich crisis although some other mini- crises have preceded it.September 30 1938 was to be one of those infamous days in history because it was when Neville Chamberlain flew back to London holding aloft a piece a paper announcing to the world that" Peace for our time" was achieved at Munich.This was,of course,rubbish and there were many who knew and believed that not only was the new state of Czechoslovakia sacrificed but that this piece of paper signified the beginning of Hitler's demonic plan to subjugate all the other European countries east of the dismantled state of the Czechs.Even Chamberlain himself acknowledged that war was to follow -a war which would not spare his country.Three days before the Munich conference none other than Chamberlain uttered the following words:"How horrible, fantastic,incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing"(Chapter 13).Indeed,Chamberlain suffered from political myopia and as a Prime Minister did not have a minimal understanding about dictators and their minds.His dealings with Hitler were extremely naive and he did not care a bunch whether people opposed his views or not, although he respected their views.We get a very long and comprehensive description about the whole process of how Hitler managed to incorporate Austria in his Reich.There is a very detailed chapter on the scandal of Blomberg's marriage to a prostitute and Fritsch's trial following the discovery that he was a homosexual,and theses two episodes were just the prelude to the Fuhrer's dismissal of his opponents in the army.
In contrast to Chamberlain there were other wiser politicians who knew-already in March 1938-that after Austria Czechoslovakia would follow. One of them was the French Foreign Minister Joseph Paul- Boncour who said that "Europe,like an artichoke,was to be eaten leaf by leaf"(Chapter 5).It was not only Chamberlain who was duped by the Fuhrer.There were many others such as Lords Rothmere and Beaverbrook who fell into the same trap.The first one,Lord Rothmere,had been visiting Germany regularly since 1930 praising Hitler and his minions.Another excellent chapter is devoted to the Runciman mission.Runciman was the mediator sent by Lord Halifax but he failed,too.Chapter 14 gives an excellent account of the Munich conference and Faber makes it clear how confusingly the parties taking place in that conference were behaving.There were technical problems with the translation of texts and memoranda.What followed was the sellout of Czechoslovakia and the the beginning of the most horrible catastrophe in Europe.
The book makes it clear that there is no room for appeasement when blood-seeking monsters and dictators such as Hitler are concerned.Brutes like him cannot be offered any compromises.Let this dark era -and this superbly-researched and long book- be a warning to the leaders of today who haven't yet learnt the lessons of 1938.