Munich 1938: Prelude to War

by David Boyle

“A judicious account of when Europe stood at the crossroads... Boyle writes with intelligence and passion.” Roger Moorhouse, author of The Devils’ Alliance

September 1938.

Hitler is poised to send his troops into Czechoslovakia, which is expected to lead to a wider European war. His generals are poised to remove him from power when he orders war. But somehow, none of these things took place. Instead, in an extraordinary series of betrayals, and three dramatic nail-biting diplomatic summits, the British and French gave Hitler everything he asked for. The Second World War was averted, but only for a year.

David Boyle’s gripping, hour-by-hour account tells the story as it seemed at the time, so that we can make up our own minds about the controversial - and probably naive - decision by prime minister Neville Chamberlain to fly to Germany three times, to meet Hitler and to bring back what he believed was "peace for our time".

Munich 1938: Prelude to War relates the tale of the huge efforts by appeasers and anti-appeasers, like Halifax and Churchill, the diplomats, translators and spies, and the heroic plotters who were hoping to assassinate Hitler before it was too late.

We may never agree about what we think now about the Munich conference - whether it was betrayal or breathing space before war - but we can hear the story, and learn from it. So that we never make the same mistakes again.

David Boyle is a British author and journalist who writes mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business and culture. He lives in Crystal Palace, London. His books include ‘Unheard Warfare in the Dardanelles’, ‘Towards the Setting The Race for America’ and ‘The Age to Come’.

Praise for David Boyle

'A wonderfully elegant and pithy reappraisal of the “miracle” that saved Britain' Saul David

‘Exhilarating’ - Daily Mail

Genres: History

168 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2018

About the author

David Courtney Boyle was a British author and journalist who wrote mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business, and culture. He lived in Steyning in West Sussex.
He conducted an independent review for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services which reported in 2013. Boyle was a co-founder and policy director of Radix, which he characterized in 2017 as a radical centrist think tank. He was also co-director of the mutual think tank New Weather Institute.

Reviews

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good concise summary of the events in 1938 leading up to the ultimately fated Munich agreement

[Flob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This provides a fascinating light on a complex period. Chamberlain was clearly arrogant, narrow minded, a snob, a cold distant man. He has his apologists and I think there is some point to their case (cf Robert Harris). It mainly seems to hinge of the time frame. Given the cards he had, given the knowledge he processed could he have done things differently? Could he have taken the nation into war? Britain was in a position of weakness, more apparent than real, but in his previous job as Chancellor he did a great deal to get us there. This is too short a book to be definitive but is well worth the read.

[Tom King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently finished reading "Darkest Hour" by Anthony McCarten and found it fascinating. I wanted to read this to better understand Neville Chamberlain and those who sought to appease Hitler. This little book does a great job of explaining each country's point of view and the struggles of their leaders to address the growing power of the fascists. The author also provides us with some interesting "what if" scenarios. The only negative I can relay is that the edition that I read has quite a few grammatical errors.

[Terence Lionel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Book

The book should have showed the picture of Chamberlin holding that piece of paper saying piece of paper saying “Peace in our time .” Chamberlin did give Britain to prepare for war! Like Wellington said it was a close run thing! It was a well written book and I learned a lot about Munich 1938 but I would read Those Troublesome Young Men gives an excellent account on Chamberlain government during the Munich crisis and leading to WW2

[David Bisset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise account

A good summary of events, but rather too brief.
Chamberlain returned as a hero, but he was quickly vilified.
He gained a year but at the expense of Czechoslovakia.
All the ethnic Germans were, of course, expelled at the end of the Second World War.