Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
Author: Lynne Olson
Acclaimed historian Lynne Olson’s collective biography explores one of the most important turning points in 20th-century history – the months leading up to Winston Churchill’s accession to Prime Minister and the decisive turning of the tide in Britain against the appeasement of Hitler.
They attended the same schools, went to the same country houses, married each other’s sisters. They were part of the small, clubby network that dominated English society. And now they were doing the unthinkable: trying to topple the man who led their own political party, prime minister Neville Chamberlain, from power.
It was early 1940, several months after Britain had declared war on Germany–and then had made clear it had little interest in fighting. Poland had been crushed, and Chamberlain, despite the treaties and the promises to Poland, had done nothing to save it. In Germany, military buildup continued unabated, as Hitler fine-tuned his plans for an assault on Western Europe.
In Britain there was doubt, suspicion, and despair. When war was declared, the country had braced itself: millions had been evacuated to the countryside; a blackout had been imposed–and for what? What was the justification?
A small group of dissidents within the Conservative Party drew together to fight Chamberlain and his policy of appeasing Hitler. They included the bookish Harold Macmillan, an unlikely rebel; Roland Cartland, most outspoken of the dissidents; and Anthony Eden, the Golden Boy of interwar politics and Chamberlain’s foreign secretary. The climax of months of conspiracy would come in May 1940, when the House of Commons gatheredto debate Britain’s defeat by Germany in Norway.
As the rebels worked feverishly to line up last-minute support, the dissidents feared that their odds of success were slim. Yet within days of their challenging Chamberlain over the conduct of the war in Norway, he was gone and Churchill was prime minister. Troublesome Young Men is the story of how that came to be–and of the men who made it happen.
The New York Times - Jon Meacham
Churchill was not alone in his opposition to Hitler during what he called his wilderness years, and therein lies the strength of Lynne Olson's brisk, engaging new book, Troublesome Young Men. Olson, a former White House correspondent for The Baltimore Sun, has given us a fascinating snapshot of the Tory "rebels," as she calls them, who ultimately opposed Neville Chamberlain and helped elevate the then-unbeatified Churchill.
The Washington Post - David Cannadine
…vivid and compelling…Troublesome Young Men describes and celebrates the efforts of Chamberlain's opponents within his own Conservative Party. These Tory rebels finally succeeded in bringing the prime minister down after a famous debate in the House of Commons in early May 1940 in which Leo Amery ended his powerful speech by quoting the terrible words that Oliver Cromwell had used to dismiss the Long Parliament 300 years before: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing! Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" Chamberlain grudgingly resigned, and Winston S. Churchill succeeded him, convinced that destiny had nurtured him and prepared him for what would soon be his finest hour. Yet while this may all seem inevitable in retrospect, there was nothing predestined about it at the time.
Publishers Weekly
In 1930s England, faced with the gathering menace of fascism, 30 or so junior members of Parliament understood that Hitler would not be dissuaded by Prime Minister Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Their rebellion against their leader and the "elderly mediocrities" of their own Conservative Party is the subject of Olson's absorbing book. The forces opposed to Chamberlain were initially inhibited by party loyalty and the ferocious reprisals threatened against anyone who challenged the prime minister. Olson traces how Hitler's continuing depredations (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland) served to recruit more insurgents in the House of Commons and galvanize those shamed by England's inaction. Olson's story picks up energy as she reviews the events of 1940, when at long last Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill. Olson is interested in the moral imperatives driving her protagonists. The dominant figure in the narrative, of course, is Churchill, who despised Chamberlain's defeatism but served loyally in his cabinet until Chamberlain's forced resignation. Infused with the sense of urgency felt by the young Tories, Olson's vivid narrative of a critical generational clash leaves the reader wondering what might have happened had they prevailed earlier on. (Apr.)
Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.Jim Doyle - Library Journal
Here is the engrossing story of the British Tory dissidents, upper-class MPs who denounced Neville Chamberlain's attempts to mollify Hitler's ravenous territorial ambitions in pre-World War II Europe. The "Young Rebels" despised appeasement as a diplomatic strategy and sought to remove Chamberlain from office. As back benchers, they were expected to tow the Conservative Party line strictly enforced by Chamberlain and his Tory whip, David Margesson. Yet Ronald Cartland, Harold Macmillan, Bob Boothby, Harold Nicholson, and their like-minded colleagues risked political suicide in their frustrating attempts to oust Chamberlain and to make Winston Churchill prime minister. It was only after the outbreak of hostilities and the dual defeats in Norway and France that their concerns finally gained traction: Chamberlain stepped down and the indomitable Churchill became England's leader, vindicating the Young Rebels. Olson (Freedom's Daughters) does a superb job of capturing the smoked-filled, whiskey-soaked ambience of British politics and the web of personal relationships involved. While not sympathetic to Chamberlain's diplomatic strategy, she does convey the complexities of developing an effective foreign policy in a parliamentary government. For a more sympathetic view of Chamberlain's attempts to keep the peace, see Peter Neville's Hitler and Appeasement. Olson has crafted a seamless narrative that flows from primary and secondary sources and is a worthy addition to all World War II collections.
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Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future
Author: Vali Nasr
The New York Times bestseller: "Historically incisive, geographically broad-reaching, and brimming with illuminating anecdotes."—Max Rodenbeck, New York Review of Books
Profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Iranian-born scholar Vali Nasr has become one of America's leading commentators on current events in the Middle East, admired and welcomed by both media and government for his "concise and coherent" analysis (Wall Street Journal). In this "smart, clear and timely" book (Washington Post), Nasr brilliantly dissects the political and theological antagonisms within Islam. He provides a unique and objective understanding of the 1,400-year bitter struggle between Shias and Sunnis, and sheds crucial light on its modern-day consequences—from the nuclear posturing of Iran's President Ahmadinejad to the recent U.S.-enabled shift toward Shia power in Iraq and Hezbollah's continued dominance in Lebanon. This paperback edition features a new foreword for 2007.
The New York Times - Irshad Manji
Americans may be paying more attention to Muslim conflicts now. They had better. In The Shia Revival, a fast-moving, engaging and ultimately unnerving book, Vali Nasr writes that wars within Islam "will shape the future." A professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and an occasional adviser to the American government, Nasr argues that Operation Iraqi Freedom has tilled the soil for a "new" Middle East — one fueled less by the ideal of democracy than by an age-old animosity between Islam's two major sects, the majority Sunnis and minority Shiites.
Publishers Weekly
One of the least remarked upon aspects of the war in Iraq, at least in the American press, has been how conflict and instability in that country have shaken the delicate balance of power between Sunni and Shia throughout the wider region. Nasr, professor of Middle East and South Asia politics at the Naval Postgraduate School, tackles this question head-on for a Western audience. His account begins with a cogent, engrossing introduction to the history and theology of Shia Islam, encapsulating the intellectual and political trends that have shaped the faith and its relations with the dominant Sunni strain. Nasr argues that the Shia Crescent-stretching from Lebanon and Syria through the Gulf to Iraq and Iran, finally terminating in Pakistan and India-is gathering strength in the aftermath of Saddam's fall, cementing linkages that transcend political and linguistic borders and could lead to a new map of the Middle East. While Nasr's enthusiasm for Iraq's Shiite leader Ayatollah Sistani sometimes borders on the hagiographic, and he makes a number of uncharacteristic errors, such as conflating the Syrian Alawi community with the Turkish Alevis, his book is worthwhile reading for those seeking a primer on the second-largest Muslim sect. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
The war in Iraq has by now made it abundantly clear that the struggle for the soul of that country goes beyond good vs. evil or democracy vs. authoritarianism. What matters in the Middle East and what determines the region's future may well have more to do with Shia vs. Sunni, Arab vs. Persian, Kurd vs. Arab, and other such internal cleavages. More specifically, as the subtitle of this book indicates, conflicts within Islam will likely play a significantly larger role in determining the Middle East's future than what happens between the countries of the region and the outside world. This timely and important book sheds light on an enduring conflict within Islam-the historic divide between its Shia and Sunni branches. Although Sunnis make up the majority of Muslims, the Shia, suppressed by Saddam Hussein, make up over 60 percent of Iraq's population. Nasr (Middle East & South Asia politics, Dept. of National Security, Naval Postgraduate Sch.), who has published extensively on politics and religion in South Asia and the Middle East, explains the genesis and specific development of Shia Islam and the making of Shia politics in the contemporary Middle East. The entrenched historical, theological, and political disputes within Islam are analyzed here in an eminently readable and informative book that should be read by both policymakers and informed Western readers. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/06.]-Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, AL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A conflict of civilizations may be raging between Islam and the West, but a sectarian battle within Islam itself could turn out to be the main event. When American politicos boasted not so long ago of bringing the light of freedom to the Arab world, writes political scientist Nasr, "it was in effect the old Sunni-dominated Middle East that they were talking about democratizing." The question of whether those Sunnis want democracy in the first place notwithstanding, Sunnis do control the most powerful nations in the Arab world, particularly ultraconservative Saudi Arabia. Nasr likens the Sunnis to Protestants (perhaps hardshell Baptists), with their faith in documents and direct experience, whereas the Shia, like Catholics, place more value on the authority of clerics and textual interpreters. Sunnis outnumber Shias ten to one in the Islamic world generally but are roughly even in number in some parts of the Middle East, while Shias predominate around the Persian Gulf-and have now attained power, if tenuously, in Iraq, where they were formerly excluded. Much of the violence now taking place in that country, writes Nasr, is directed against Shias, and the anti-American insurgency there is predicated on what its leader, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, calls "a difficult, fierce battle with a crafty enemy who wears the garb of a friend." Interestingly, Nasr shows, other political events in the Muslim world can be explained in sectarian terms: In 1977, for instance, a coup to overthrow Bhutto-a Shia-was led by Sunni fundamentalists whose draconian campaigns inspired the fledgling Taliban in next-door Afghanistan. Much blood has been spilled over the doctrinal dispute between the two factions, a gap thatcontinues to widen. Nasr's book is a helpful footnote to the headlines, now that "war on America is war on Shi'ism, and war on Shi'ism is war on America."
Table of Contents:
| Ch. 1 | The other Islam : who are the Shia? | 31 |
| Ch. 2 | The making of Shia politics | 63 |
| Ch. 3 | The fading promise of nationalism | 81 |
| Ch. 4 | Khomeini's moment | 119 |
| Ch. 5 | The battle of Islamic fundamentalisms | 147 |
| Ch. 6 | The tide turns | 169 |
| Ch. 7 | Iraq : the first Arab Shia state | 185 |
| Ch. 8 | The rise of Iran | 211 |
| Ch. 9 | The battle for the Middle East | 227 |
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