The Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters: The Downing Street Years, 1934-1940

Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters #4

by Neville Chamberlain, Robert C. Self (Editor)

The fourth volume of Chamberlain's letters encompasses economic recovery, the lead-up to war, and his installation as prime minister. An introduction sets the scene as the then-chancellor, "driven by a combination of restless energy and overwhelming self-confidence...turned his attention to everything from a plan for fundamental reform of the system of unemployment insurance to subsidy support for sugar beet and the formulation of a new housing policy which attempted to deal systematically with some of his old preoccupations with town planning and the 'reconditioning' of slums." Appendices detail the Chamberlain household and family and primary sources consulted for vols. I-IV. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

588 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Arthur Neville Chamberlain was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
After working in business and local government and after a short spell as Director of National Service in 1916 and 1917, Chamberlain followed his father, Joseph Chamberlain, and older half-brother, Austen Chamberlain, in becoming a member of parliament in the 1918 general election at age 49. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer. After a short Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931.
When Stanley Baldwin retired in May 1937, Chamberlain took his place as Prime Minister. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy toward the increasingly aggressive Germany, and his actions at Munich were widely popular among Britons at the time. When Hitler continued his aggression, Chamberlain pledged Britain to defend Poland's independence if the latter were attacked, an alliance that brought Britain into war when Germany attacked Poland in 1939. Chamberlain resigned the premiership on 10 May 1940 after the Allies were forced to retreat from Norway, as he believed a government supported by all parties was essential, and the Labour and Liberal parties would not join a government headed by him. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill. Before ill health forced him to resign he was an important member of Churchill's War Cabinet, heading it in the new premier's absence. Chamberlain died of cancer six months after leaving the premiership.