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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, June 25, 2007
and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"
With those words to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on May 7, 1940 (quoting a speech of Oliver Cromwell to Parliament in 1653), Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Leo Amery stunned Parliament and Britain and sounded the death knell for Chamberlain's term as Prime Minister. Three days later, on May 10, 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill took office. Chamberlain's resignation marks the emotional climax of Lynne Olson's compelling popular history, "Troublesome Young Men". "Troublesome Young Men" tells the story of the small group of Conservative MPs who opposed Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement toward Hitler's Germany from the mid-1930s until Churchill's accession to power.
Olson's book is a valuable piece of work for a number of reasons. During the premiership of Neville Chamberlain it was not Winston Churchill who stood out as the primary threat to Chamberlain's appeasement policies but the young MPS who are the subject of Olson's book. Those MPs included future Prime Ministers in Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan and others including Robert Boothby, Ronald Cartland, Bobbety Cranborne (the future Lord Salisbury) and Violet Bonham Carter. Leo Amery was certainly not young, he was a schoolmate of Churchill's at Harrow, but was just as `troublesome'. Olson does an admirable job of taking this cast of characters and providing the reader with information as to who they were and why they took a political stand in the face of fierce opposition from a fierce and vindictive Conservative Party leadership.
Olson also does a commendable job of portraying Chamberlain in a light that, while being far from sympathetic, paints a more substantive picture than the usual superficial clichés about his character and premiership that one often finds. Chamberlain's foreign policy decisions were, in fact, disastrous and were the product of the naïve belief that he and he alone, could deal with and control Herr Hitler. However, the image of him as nothing more than a prim, umbrella-toting milquetoast does not stand scrutiny. As Prime Minister, Chamberlain was far from docile and, in fact, was suspicious, domineering and close to tyrannical when it came to maintaining control over Parliament. Olson portrays him, accurately I think, as a very astute politician with a well-developed Machiavellian sense of tactics. Chamberlain outmaneuvered these troublesome young men at every turn. Unfortunately, this masterful ability was expended solely in Parliament and solely for the purpose of keeping himself in power. When it came to foreign policy Chamberlain was hopelessly lost.
Perhaps the most compelling and disturbing portrait painted by Olson is that of Anthony Eden. It is easy to forget that during the premiership of Neville Chamberlain that it was not Winston Churchill who stood out as a threat to Chamberlain's appeasement policies but Anthony Eden. The troublesome young men were generally considered to be "Edenites. But Eden, for all his intelligence, comes across as a timid and vacillating political rival notoriously incapable of making tough political decisions. Eden's indecisiveness reminded me of Leon Trotsky. Like Trotsky, Eden managed to fall ill or absent himself from the center of action at critical moments in time when a few well-chosen words or strong action could have set Chamberlain's policy of appeasement on its heels. Time and time again the troublesome young men turned to Eden and time and time again he found a way to avoid making a tough decision. It is no wonder that even his friends referred to him as Hamlet.
Eden's inability to commit effectively left Winston Churchill as the only viable alternative to Chamberlain. To the extent that Eden's vacillation helped pave the way for Churchill one cannot help but think that Britain and the U.S. owe Eden a debt of gratitude for his indecisiveness.
Olson's "Troublesome Young Men" is both entertaining and informative. Although much has been written about Churchill, Chamberlain, and appeasement, by focusing on the other characters Olson has done a tremendous service. These troublesome young men (and women) exhibited courage and integrity. Some had their political careers ruined by Chamberlain's political machine. Others were considered traitors to their party. Yet they persevered and by retelling their not often told story Olson had done a tremendous job in fleshing out the historical record. 4.5 stars. Highly recommended. L. Fleisig
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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It was no miracle, July 20, 2007
In a well-known cartoon by Sydney Harris, a mathematician works at a blackboard. A complex mass of equations is labeled "Step One," while on the other side of the board, a simple syllogism is "Step Three." In between, for "Step Two," he has written "And then a miracle occurs."
In some ways, this idea represents the conventional understanding of Winston Churchill's rise to power in 1940. For his "wilderness years," WSC was on the outside looking in, railing against appeasement and warning of the impending Nazi threat. The war begins and things look dark for the British. But then "a miracle occurs" and Churchill becomes PM, he and the British experience their Finest Hour, and Hitler is vanquished. High-fives all around.
As Lynne Olson's fine book demonstrates, Churchill's becoming prime minister was no miracle at all. Instead, it was (like most so-called "miracles") the product of some very hard work by a number of people who never got the recognition and thanks they deserved -- least of all by Churchill himself. As some reviewers have noted, "Troublesome Young Men" is not heavy on analysis or original research. It is, however, an excellent example of storytelling and characterization, and shines some much-needed light on men (and some women) who have been eclipsed by Churchill's immense shadow for too long.
This is not primarily a book about Churchill, though -- typically and inevitably -- his gravity bends and shapes the universe around him. The picture we get of The Man of the (Twentieth) Century is far from flattering: Olson notes that in spite of his independent spirit and periods of political radicalism, he was fundamentally a conservative man, and had the conservative's typical monarchical sentiment. This, she argues, is why he remained so perplexingly, infuriatingly loyal to Neville Chamberlain once he was brought into Chamberlain's cabinet, and why he never seemed to appreciate the Troublesome Young Men's efforts on his behalf. They had, after all, "disloyally" engineered the fall of a Tory leader. Even though Churchill himself (to say nothing of the nation and the world) benefited from this, regicide could never be rewarded.
Despite all we learn (or re-learn) about WSC from this book, the reader shouldn't let his dominant presence distract her from the very many other interesting characters Lynne Olson introduces us to. I've always considered a mark of a good book to be the number of *other* books an author makes me want to track down and read, and Olson scores high in this regard. Titles she cites about Leo Amery and Harold Macmillan are two obvious examples, but this also led me to Barbara Cartland's biography of her brother Ronald Cartland, who is clearly Lynne Olson's tragic hero. Andrew Roberts' " Eminent Churchillians" and Graham Stewart's " Burying Caesar: The Churchill-Chamberlain Rivalry," both of which I already own, have also moved a good ways up my to-read-someday list.
As American conservative activist and educator Morton Blackwell has said, "In politics, nothing moves unless it's pushed." Lynne Olson's "Troublesome Young Men" is an entertaining and fast-paced look at one of the most important political "pushes" in modern history. As popular historic storytelling, this title is a worthwhile and compelling read, and deserves the attention it has been receiving.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Voices In The Wilderness, April 28, 2007
As the most famous voice against the appeasement polices of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in the 1930's, Winston Churchill drowns out the myriad of other voices who spoke out at great personal and political cost. "Troublesome Young Men" is the story of those voices who "brought Churchill to power" against a powerful establishment that brooked no dissent.
Prime Minister Chamberlain was detemined to avoid the slaughter of World World I by buying peace at any price and was supported by the English people. He also resembled Richard Nixon with his use of dirty tricks, including taping phone conversations. To oppose a popular PM who could ruin your career was a hard choice for Leo Amery, Ronald Cartland, Harold Nicolson and others. To support Churchill was not a sure thing as he was viewed as being over the hill (he had been in public view for nearly 40 years since the Boer War). These rebels were eloquent in their opposition and courageous in their public convictions. This is a book about politics at its best, when nothing less than the best would save the world.
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