Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II Hardcover – September 1, 2009

Wonderful book. Informative and fascinating. I've read it twice.

Some might find the detail tedious, but I read this like the best thriller. Even when you know how it all turns out, the ride is phenomenal.

This is the book if you want a moment by moment recreation of Munich when Chamberlain disgraced himself and Hitler absorbed Czechoslovakia. Lots of detail, perhaps more detail than we need.

it came on time. the book was in good shape. i had no problems with it. soon i probably order from this vendor

A good look into the days when some folks thought Hitler could be reasoned with. Well written and a great read.

The title of David Faber's Munich, 1938 perhaps unconsciously makes it a perfect bookend for Margaret Macmillan's Paris 1919. Munich put an exclamation point to the tatters of Versailles, and these two books encompass the entire term of Eduard Benes as a Czech leader. Herr Hitler's ironic justification for his aggression leading to the French betrayal of Czechoslovakia and its destruction as a state was the boomerang of `self determination' proclaimed but disregarded at Versailles when Benes secured the borders of his new republic. Faber tells us that when Benes' order for Czech mobilization was officially announced by radio in late September 1938, it was broadcast in all six of the republic's official languages: Czech, Slovak, German, Hungarian, Ruthenian, and Polish. Thus one of the most striking failures of the Versailles treaty's nation building, the story that climaxed in Munich and ended in early 1939 when Hitler liquidated what remained of the Rump Czech State is compellingly told in this new addition to the English speaking history of Nazi Germany. In this day-by-day version we can take the time to contemplate the many sub-themes and personalities involved more fully than in the hackneyed versions that have made Munich a synonym for appeasement. Faber gives a delightful description of a befuddled Nevile Henderson, Britain's ambassador to Berlin, standing with the Nazi leadership at the Nuremberg rally, thinking Hitler both "an apostle of peace" and "insane," but in truth clueless of what these men really intended.

Neville Chamberlain is clearly Faber's protagonist, while Winston Churchill makes far fewer appearances than we might expect. There is no major disparity here from Churchill's version of the Czech crisis in The Gathering Storm (indeed, Faber even borrows a chapter heading from that book--The Loaded Pause). Churchill need not star because London and His Majesty's Government had quite enough players who contemporaneously viewed Chamberlain's actions much as history seems to have accepted them. The critics were however a distinct minority. In Churchill's words the Prime Minister's first ever airplane flight that took him to Germany was "the stupidest thing," and not because of the accident risk involved. Faber, however, makes it resoundingly clear that at the time the folk and the monarch alike cheered Chamberlain's every move in this crisis.

The author documents many times that Hitler intended to invade Czechoslovakia no matter what the "worms" in the French and English governments had to say. Hitler negotiated in a way to "minimize the chances of being cheated out of at least a little war." Also documented are the British people's ardent wishes to avoid war and the French government's terror at having to honor their 1927 treaty with The Little Entente. We can therefore wonder if Chamberlain's initiatives were not more folly than futile even as celebrated as a success. Nevertheless, Faber makes a fascinating story of the "war now or war later" great power diplomacy as a model for future crises. He quotes the Berchtesgaden joint communiqué that describes the first Chamberlain/Hitler talks as "a comprehensive and frank exchange of views," jargon repeated at almost every summit since.

This book is a masterful telling of one of history's tutorial moments, and it will remain a valued reference for those events. Some criticism must be made of a history volume without maps. Beyond the fact that most Americans would not accurately locate the previously annexed Austria as south of and surrounding Czechoslovakia or visualize the Czech borders as a dagger in the heart of Germany, some maps could have demonstrated the demarcations of the various proposed cessions as the Munich Dictate evolved. Also, in a book this detailed there is very little about "what-if." What if Hitler backed down or what if Hitler invaded and forced France into war in 1938. In this year's Masters and Commanders, Andrew Roberts has written of the Spitfires and Hurricanes that won the Battle of Britain "they were in fact for the most part produced during the eleven months of peace bought by Neville Chamberlain at Munich." The author does make it clear that the German military believed war in 1938 meant German defeat. David Faber's version is a very expanded but not revisionist book about Chamberlain and Munich. I highly recommend it.

An excellent book that provides a detailed narrative of the movement to appease Hitler's ambitions that started in earnest in 1938 and continued with Chamberlain's three visits to Hitler in September of 1939. The focus is pretty much exclusively on narration of events. There is very little, really no analysis of events or any effort to place them in a larger context. In fact, this is the sort of book that could be turned into a very gripping short miniseries with appropriate actors playing the characters, the kind of format that cannot by its nature analyze topics since it instead endeavors instead to show them. By contrast, a documentary, with talking heads providing extensive commentary and analysis would be the opposite of what this book does.

I included in my review title a reference to what the book is not since at least some reviewers wish Faber had written a different book, some even taking offense that he did not write the kind of book that would presumably be more to their liking. For what he sets out to do, he does a superb job.

While some background in the period is of course very helpful, it is not essential since because the focus is on narration of events rather than background, one doesn't really need to know much about the events to appreciate Faber's efforts. I would say, however, that the first third or so of the book may seem somewhat aimless, but as one reads further one realizes that the earlier chapters (and they focus on 1938 and early 1939, not earlier) build an essential foundation to the climactic final chapters covering Chamberlain's visits and reactions to them in Britain and France. By the time I reached the final third, the narrative had become so gripping that it became a "page turner" where I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

I also acquired an audio version of the book, narrated by Arthur Morey. Morey is an excellent narrator, but his contribution is marred by the fact that about 80%of the German names and words (and they are very numerous) are mispronounced, in some cases grotesquely. While one can't expect a narrator to be expert in a foreign language, one should expect that if the narrator is unfamiliar with a language essential to his text, he would be aware enough of the fact to seek assistance from someone who is. The ironic thing is that it seems clear that Morey did this in some cases. For example "Berchtesgaden," which is the kind of name that should give someone not familiar with German a pause, is pronounced more or less correctly each time and it is clear the narrator has taken care to do well by it. The worst offense by far is his pronunciation of "Sudetenland" as "SuDETenland" with the DET rhyming with BET, rather than the correct SuDAYten land. Since this name is mentioned hundreds of times, it becomes downright painful. I do wish the producers and Morey had taken some time to find someone familiar with German to listen to and correct this and other manglings of the German tongue. Outside of this problem, Morey's narration fits the text perfectly.

To succeed as a narrative, strong characterization of the players is required, and this Faber does with the skills of a fine novelist. As I read through the narrative I really came to feel I understood the principle characters, not through description and analysis of them and their actions, but through putting them in narrative frameworks that highlighted not only their actions and opinions, but also their characters.

If you want a thorough analysis of the events in this book, look elsewhere. If you want to read a narrative that lets you experience these events as if you were there, this is the book for you.