Neville Chamberlain Archives - Richard M. Langworth

“Munich, The Edge of War,” with Jeremy Irons: Fine Acting, Edgy History

25 February 2022 Comments 1 Comment

Regardless of whether you like the movie—and Jeremy Irons gives it an authentic, watchable flavor—we know much more about Munich in the light of scholarship since. We know that Soviet Russia was prepared to stand with Czechoslovakia in 1938, and had become a German ally in 1939. We know how—with the help of Czech armaments—Poland was eradicated in three weeks, the Low Countries in eighteen days, France in six weeks. If resisting Hitler was so ludicrous an idea in 1938, what was there about fighting him in 1939-40 that made it preferable? Given what we know, we are obliged to consider Churchill’s opinion—which was, characteristically, far from baseless.

When Did Churchill Read “Mein Kampf”?

15 September 2021 Comments 1 Comment

Q: Mein Kampf

“Of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Churchill wrote in his war memoirs:

…there was no book which deserved more careful study from the rulers, political and military, of the Allied Powers. All was there—the programme of German resurrection, the technique of party propaganda; the plan for combating Marxism; the concept of a National-Socialist State; the rightful position of Germany at the summit of the world. Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.[1]

“But he writes nothing about it before this. When did he first read Mein Kampf, and did he have any early reaction to it?”…

Churchill’s Consistency: Politics Before Country (Part 2)

20 August 2021 Comments 0 Comments

Consistency in Politics…

…was a theme of Churchill’s, and he often wrote about it. He made many mistakes, but throughout his career he was seldom guilty of lacking consistency. Continued from Part 1…

“Much better if he had never lived”

Churchill maintained friendly relations with Baldwin until Baldwin died in 1947. Nevertheless—which was rare for him—he never forgave and never forgot. In June 1947 he made an astonishing statement: “I wish Stanley Baldwin no ill, but it would have been much better if he had never lived.” Official biographer Martin Gilbert wrote that this was not Churchill’s usual consistency, but exactly the opposite:

In my long search for Churchill few letters have struck a clearer note than this one.…