Customer Reviews

Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

[...]

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.

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.

Lynne Olson's "Troublesome Young Men" is a grandly successful book on numerous levels. For one it is a vivid portrayal of England in the extraordinary few years before Hitler plunged Europe into war. We learn how blind so many British leaders were to the threat the Nazis presented and indeed how a few were even sympathetic to some of Hitler's aims. We also see how British parliamentary leaders muzzled dissent within their own ranks and worst of all manipulated the press and thus public opinion. We are also reminded that the horrible business of war cannot be done on the cheap or with half measures (as Lincoln learned during the Civil War upon sacking McClellan and ultimately opting for Grant). Most of all "Troublesome Young Men" teaches us how a few brave young men willing to risk political careers can do the right thing for their country and their civilization in the face of very long odds.
This is the story of rebels within Britain's Tory majority who fought the powers that were when they witnessed their leaders' unwillingness to stand up to the burgeoning Nazi threat of the late 1930's. These progressive Tories recognized that sycophantic diplomacy was no way to stop a totalitarian regime armed to the teeth and threatening its neighbors. The rebels sought a change in leadership to someone (Winston Churchill was the obvious choice to many) who would stand up and if necessary fight. Once the war came with Neville Chamberlin still Prime Minister, they sought a leader (again Churchill would do) who would vigorously prosecute the war. Thankfully they were ultimately successful.
Olson's book succeeds in large part because of the manner in which she brings back to life these brave soles. Many of us are quite familiar with Churchill but here we meet Boothby, Amery, Cartland and Macmillian to name but a few. Olson is not above mixing a little scandal (such carrying on among England's elite!) but always for the purpose of adding full depth and dimension to her portraits. Readers are also familiarized with less heroic figures such as Chamberlin who was very much a man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Olson not only re-creates the figures but also the events. She brings readers into the House of Commons, the smoking rooms, into offices and onto estates and other locales where the story plays out. Thankfully she avoids the problem common to many writers of non fiction by not indulging in long quotations, instead getting the essence of the speaker's remarks in a few aptly chosen sentences or less.
"Troublesome Some Young Men" is an important addition to the vast body of work on World War II and one that demonstrates that while some heroes did their fighting on battlefields with guns, others fought in in the political arena with words (a few like Ronald Cartland did both).

A useful corrective for the commonly held view that Winston Churchill was alone in fighting against the official policy of appeasement in the years leading up to World War II.

Lynne Olson has written a very good work on the social and political background to the ultimate shift in Parliament from the peace-at-any-price leadership provided by Chamberlain to that of the more robust and winning Churchill.

While focused of the late 1930s and early 1940s, the book is useful for those with an interest in understanding British politics of the 1950s (Eden/Suez) to the early 60s (the resignation of Harold Macmillan.)

Also, as a result of this book, I am now an admirer of Ronald Cartland, who was one of the best of the troublesome young men.

Olson's account of the long lonely and uphill struggle of the anti-appeasement movement among Conservative MPs in the 1930s is an absorbing tale of parliamentary manuevering, and class and gender poltics, told in a riveting style. This deserves to be read along with Roy Jenkins' "Churchill" in order to develop a complete view of the myth and reality of Churchill and British politics in the 1930s. We get to see Harold Macmillan as a young firebrand of the '30s, instead of as the cautious PM of the '50s. Anthony Eden loses much of his luster in Olson's telling. His inabillity to lead and unwillingness to take risks presages his disastrous handling of the Suez crisis.

So why only 5 stars? I limit my plaudits to 4 stars on account of the egregious errors in Olson's handling of military detail. One of the most eye-popping is her classification of the Royal Oak, a battleship, as a destroyer. She does correctly note that over eight hundred lives were lost when the ship went down, which makes her error all the more puzzling as that total would far exceed the complement of any destroyer. She implies that the RAF air offensive against Germany sprung into gear once Churchill became PM. The RAF was not a factor in attacking Germany until mid 1942, as the [...] Report clearly indicates.

The Norway disaster is handled in a cursory manner, and the lack of maps will be keenly felt by all readers who are not already familiar with that campaign.

Her errors are not confined to Great Britain. She claims on p. 228 that "In the Reich the war economy had been placed on a clear war footing." The Allies may be glad that in fact the Reich did not move to a war economy until late 1943. Her description of the Allied collapse in late May 1940 is unfair to the French, their only mention coming as "surrendering by the thousands". The French troops who fought to keep the Wehrmacht off the backs of the British as they evaculated Dunkirk deserve better than this.

This is a good book for the insights it provides into the fight against appeasement in Great Britain. More detail to the military facts, both in the run up to war and the fighting in 1939 and 1940 would have made it an excellent one.

"Troublesome Young Men" tells the story of the people (not all young, not all men, not all Tories, although the book concentrates on Tories) who came together in coalitions to dislodge Neville Chamberlain, thereby opening the way for Winston Churchill. Considering that we know the outcome, or think we know the outcome, the book is full of tension and drama. Will Anthony Eden emerge to lead the rebels? (No.) Will Leo Amery's impassioned speech to the House of Commons, "In the name of God, go," make a difference? (Yes.) And the book is full of surprises, one of them being Churchill's unwillingness to appoint most of the troublesome young men to office immediately after he took power.

But above all the book is a pleasure for the sense it gives the reader that we are there. Duff Cooper debates resigning his position as first lord of the admiralty, and does so, even though it means giving up living at Admiralty House, one of London's most splendid residences. Francis Williams, the anti-appeasement editor of a Labour newspaper, picutures in his mind his small daughter doing handstands and his son riding a bicycle, and is torn because part of him thinks it is worth anything to avoid war. The author, Lynne Olson, has a background in journalism, and whether it is because of this or because of her great empathy with things as they are she gives us the privilege of living for a while in another time and country.

This was an informative and insightful book. So much of the history of this period is known to us today from Churchill's perspective that it is interesting to view the events from the perspective of others who were key players in them. For much of the book, Churchill is the looming presence off-stage. Only as the troublesome young men become disenchanted with the vascillating Eden does WSC move to the center.

The author's description of the period of the "phony war" (September 1939 -- May 1940) was quite interesting. She includes not only the significant events but also the small ones that provide a complete picture. Stories about children being evacuated are common, but I had not read before about the number of Londoners who had their pets put down when the war began. The comment by an American about the weirdness of walking streets with no children or dogs was telling.

I was startled by an error also noted by another reviewer. The sinking of Royal Oak at Scapa Flow by a U-boat was a noteworthy event. However, it would not have been particularly noteworthy if, as the author states, Royal Oak had been a destroyer. The ship was an R-class battleship -- virtually obsolete by 1939, but still a capital ship. No destroyer that ever sailed has had a crew as large as the 800 sailors who were lost. Who was responsible for this mistake?

Lastly, I enjoyed the way the author traced the lives of the young men as they became old men. The portrait of Super Mac was especially good. I began the book expecting it to end in 1940, but I was pleased to find that completed the stories of the main characters.

In her introduction to this magnificient history, Lynne Olson gives a hint as to her person politics when she says "[u]sing tactics that have striking resonance today, Chamberlain and his subordinates restricted journalists' access to government sources . . ." She then goes on to tell a story - - - a truly wonderful and great story - - - of how a few dedicated Britons battled hundreds of devoted political party hacks and the press that was enslaved to them in order to save Britain and Western Civilization. Olson's sttempted dig at today's White House actually turns out to be a tale about our present U. S. Congress and how the majority puts party loyalty above the safety and security of the nation.

Regardless of contemporary politics, "Troublesome Young Men" is a masterpiece. Olson painstakingly recounts how a very few, amazingly few Members of Parliament, sensing the danger of Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement to dictators, tried to get the nation to listen and then, finally, to topple Chamberlain's government from power.

The student of histroy will be reminded by Olson's book that one of the great difficulties of studying history is that there is so much of it!

For those few American public school students today who are still taught anything of the run up to World War II, which killed a mere 55 million and might well have been avoided if only European politicians weren't so stupid, the name Neville Chamberlain might bring to mind the image of a decidedly old fashioned gentleman holding a furled umbrella and a piece of paper and the words "peace in our time". And that's the sum total of their knowledge.

In fact, Chamberlain came as close to being a dictator in a parliamentary government as anyone since Cromwell in the 17th Century. But Chamberlain's power was assured by a rigid party system that essentially destroyed any Tory who did not do the party's will. This couple with a large majority in Parliament rendered Chamberlain essentially invulnerable. regardless of how threatening Chamberlain's policy of appeasing Hitler was. Chamberlain, like so many of today's American politicians, believed he could negotiate peaceful resolutions with Hitler and other tyrants.

There was also another set of circumstances that made Britons likely to look away from looming danger: Britain had lost a million dead in WWI, with another million or so permanently disabled. Two million British women were unable to find husbands. The terror of war had touched virtually every household and no matter how great the danger, ordinary citizens and hack party politicians alike wanted to avoid war.

So Britain moved deliberately toward its own destruction ... save for a few, relatively young Members of Parliament who risked their political careers to sound a warning.

It is these men, some of whose names became familiar in later years (Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, etc.) who became thorns in the side of the party establishment and tried to warn of the dangers of appeasement.

Winston Churchill who led England during the six years of WWII was not a prime mover among these "troublesome young men". In fact, many of the dissidents - and there were less than two dozen for most of the time - didn't want Churchill.

The story has been largely untold and in recent years not told at all.

Olson's approach is flawless. Her 46 pages of notes and bibliography attest to the depth and meticulousness of her research. She paints excellent, detailed portraits of each of the troublesome young men, most of whom have been lost to history. Who, for example, knows of Ronald Cartland? This young, newly elected Member of Parliament was the first to speak out against Chamberlain - and he suffered for it. How many of us know that Harold Macmillan, who acheived a modicum of fame in his own right as a Prime Minister, shared his wife with another man for nearly forty years? Macmillan and his wife lived together and she was the perfect political wife, but her love and lover was Robert Boothy, a friend and politicl ally of her husband.

On the pivotal day of May 8, 1940, Olson's surprisingly plain text almost makes real the heavy air of Parliament as hundreds of members crammed the benches to hear the speeches for and against Chamberlain. You can also smell the tobacco smoke clinging to the clothes, the odor of liquor on the breath of members and perhaps the occasional whiff of cologne or perfume from the few women in Commons and those in the gallery.

The event itself was dramatic, of course, but using her plain, but well constructed language, Olson squeezes out every drop of drama. It is, frankly, a breathtaking exhibition of prowess in prose.

This is not a book about Churchill, but truly a book about those who made it possible for him to come to power.

These few rebels, fighting against the lethargy and stupidity of their party were frightened for the future of Britain, indeed for all Western values. As Leo Amery so eloquently put it: " Somehow or other, wer must get into the Government men who match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory . . . It may not be easy to find these men. . . ."

If only we had such "troublesome young men" today in the halls of our Congress, our civilization would not once again be in danger because of those who put party allegiance ahead of the nation's well-being.

Lynne Olson has written a masterpiece. The left-wing may deride it for being about "dead white men", a male-dominated society, war and the like, but every intelligent, reasoning person owes it to themself to read it and ponder the lessons of the past as a guide for the future.

Jerry

I started skimming this book in the bookstore and couldn't stop thinking about it after I had left. I bought it and practically devoured each word. It's not perfectly written - sometimes the timetable was confusing and histories were concluded too early for my taste. However, I found myself growing desperate to know the outcome of all their machinations - beyond the obvious - and increasing appalled at the blindness of so many people. The author doesn't suffer from hero worship for any of these chaps (save one, Cartland) which is refreshing in a book of this sort.

If you think Chamberlain was given a bad rap, you'll hate this book (actually, you might want to read this book). If not, you might find it as enthralling as I did.