Appeasing Hitler
By Tim Bouverie
Bodley Head, 512pp, £20/$25
"Not another book on Hitler," you protest. “Can there be anything more to say?” But the spotlight of Tim Bouverie’s richly detailed Appeasing Hitler is directed less towards the man himself than upon an elite British contingent – diplomats, politicians, socialites and thinkers – who, for one reason or another, misjudged the course of events that led to the Second World War.
How was it that some – notably Churchill – were convinced that appeasement was both futile and wrong, while others clung to the idea that reason and a sympathetic man-to-man chat was sufficient to deflect Hitler from his aims? In other words, human psychology is at the core of this book: specifically, the types of mental framework that led so many to disregard the signposts to inevitable conflict.
